Meant To Be
by TheBookFiend
Summary: Will hates the dark. Nico hates small spaces. Who's bright idea was it to lock them in a box together...?
1. Chapter 1

When Will wakes up, he's in the dark. For a moment he thinks that he hasn't woken up at all, it's so dark. But when he runs his hand over whatever he's lying on, he knows he's awake. He'd never dreamed about lying in the dark, on a wood floor, before. He struggles to remember what he had been dreaming about. That gives him his first clue about his surroundings. When he pushes himself into a sitting position and his head spins abruptly, he knows. He's been abducted. And drugged too, probably. He curls himself into a tight ball, and closes his eyes.

 _When I open my eyes, someone will have opened a door somewhere, and then there will be light._

He can defend himself in the light. He might even stand a chance of escaping, if whatever they (whoever _they_ are) gave him has worn off by then.

But how long would that take? He strained to remember what last happened to him. He'd been... He'd been...

He'd been walking back to his cabin. He'd just had dinner by the lake with... with Travis and Katie, Lou Ellen and Miranda, Lacy and Conner. He could remember being completely uncomprehending as to why he was there- this was clearly a couple's picnic. And then...

He couldn't remember any more. He closed his mind, and waited.

Presently, he became aware of breathing next to him. Not slow, measured breathing like his own; instead these were short, sharp gasps. Panicky. Uncontrolled.

He reached out with one hand. First behind him- he didn't want to be snuck up on. But his hand struck wood. He tried again above him. More wood. The same thing happened on his left, and in front of him. That meant the person- whoever it was- was on his right. The breathing had not calmed down, rather, it had gotten more raggedy, as though the person was trying not to cry.

Eyes still tight closed, Will opened his mouth. "Hello?"

There was a short gasp, and then the breathing stopped all together. Will couldn't tell weather the person was holding there breath, or weather they had died of shock. The former, he hoped. He tried again.

"Is anyone there?"

There was a definite quaver in his voice.

Silence.

One more time.

"Please?"

He didn't want to reach out again. What if they attacked. What if, worse, they weren't there at all? What if he was just imagin-

"W-Will?"

A reply. That was all he needed, and the voice sounded familiar. But he still didn't open his eyes.

"Yeah, it's me. It's Will. Do you know where we are?"

More silence. But the breathing had calmed slightly. Only very slightly, though. And then, as though they were trying very hard to sound light, or uncaring (light. What he wouldn't give for a little light.), but failing completely, a reply.

"Wooden box. Cupboard."

Yes, he'd thought as much.

"Any door on your side?"

"No."

"Mine neither" Will responded. The breathing next to him quickened again.

He had to do it now. Will reached out a hand, and his fingers brushed something- leather?

 _Who is this, anyway?_

He opened his eyes. It didn't make anymore of a difference than the first time he tried it.

"So you know who I am," he said lightly (he managed to keep his voice under control), "so... Who do I have the pleasure of being trapped in a cupboard with?"

"Don't! Please." The voice was getting panicky now.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I won't joke about the box." _Or the dark,_ he added silently. "So who is this?"

The tiniest pause, and then:

"Nico. It's Nico."


	2. Chapter 2

"Nico. It's Nico."

Will could have jumped a mile, except he hadn't the room. He was trapped in a cupboard, in the dark, with Nico Di Angelo: the most dangerous/gorgeous demigod he could think of. Was this a good thing, or a very bad one? If Nico went mad, he was liable to kill Will by accident, and yet Will couldn't help but feel that Nico needed the company to keep him sane. Besides, Nico would never hurt him on _purpose_ , Will was sure of it. He listened to Nico's panicky breathing. _That isn't right_ , he thought to himself.

Some doctor he was. Of course it isn't right for someone to be hyperventilating in a dark cupboard, on more than one level.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine! Fine," Nico lied.

 _O.K, then. That line of questioning isn't going to work._

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

Nico's arm (at least, he assumed it was Nico's arm he was resting his hand on. If it wasn't...) tensed. _Bad question_ , he thought, but Nico answered.

"I went to my cabin and lay on my bed. I think I fell asleep. I woke up here." His words were punctuated with small, hiccupey gasps.

 _Panic attack,_ Will thought. He should have realised that a while ago, but he was a little preoccupied with loosing his own sanity to notice much.

"You?"

"I, uh. I don't remember much... I was picnicking with some couples by the lake, I think. I went back to my cabin, and... and... I think I just went to bed. I woke up here. I think I was drugged..."

There was a long silence, punctuated only by two sets of shaky breathing. Nico's, and his own, he realised.

 _O.K, Solace, keep it together, keep it together. It will be morning soon, KEEP. IT. TOGETHER._

Then Nico asked, "Are you alright? You sound... I don't know... upset?"

 _I know how I sound, Nico. Do you know how you sound?_ Will couldn't quite believe this. Nico had flipped the doctor-patient roles over, and was asking about him! _It's his way of keeping control,_ Will thought suddenly.

"No, Nico, I'm not alright," was what he actually said.

"... What's wrong?"

Will took a deep breath. He had to tell _someone._

"The dark. I'm scared of the dark. I'm only just holding it together, Nico. I'm scared." He waited for Nico to laugh at him: a child of Apollo, scared of the dark? Couldn't he use some special power to call the light, or something? That was what he expected people to say. That was what he expected Nico to say.

But he was suprised.

"Me too. Well, not the dark. I mean, I'm only just holding it together myself."

 _I can hear that,_ Will thought dryly, then hated himself for thinking it.

There was another pause. And then, all in a rush, Nico blurted out:

"I'm claustrophobic. I've been claustrophobic ever since Rome. I can't stand small spaces- cupboards, wardrobes, even tombs... I find myself panicking, like I'm going to drown, or like all the air's being squeezed from my chest..."

Nico sounded close to tears. Will found himself feeling unusually tearful himself, too.

"Hey, Nico, it's O.K. It's fine. Lots of people are claustrophobic."

"It's not fine! It makes me the most useless son of Hades ever! And it doesn't matter, cause we're probably going to die in here anyway!"

"No, Nico. No we're not." And Will pulled the other boy into his arms and hugged him. By the hitch in Nico's breathing, he had expected this as little as Will had planned it. But after a second, he relaxed and returned the hug.

"Thanks, Will."

"It's fine. You're not useless." Will had started talking now, he had to finish. "And even if you are useless to Hades, you're important to me."

Nico's voice was muffled when he responded. "And you're important to me, too."

At that moment, light spilled in from the top of the box. After his eyes adjusted, Will was able to see that they had been trapped in a two meter long crate. Leaning over the edge was a familiar figure. Rubbing his eyes (and suprised to find them wet) he was met by Connor's grin before a dazzling sunset.

"Rise and shine, boys! Did you enjoy your day in the box?" he asked in a jovial, teasing way.

Will and Nico jumped to their feet, hands still intertwined. Will felt ready to kill Connor, for what he had put Nico- for what he had put them both through.

When they spoke, they spoke with one voice, with one fury.

"CONNOR STOLL, WE ARE GOING TO _KILL_ YOU!"

Connor's smile died as he glanced at their irate faces; he turned and ran.

"I told him it was a bad idea,"commented Annabeth, but both boys ignored her, turning to pursue their quarry.

Even through doling out Conner's punishment, neither Nico nor Will dropped their hands from the other's grip.

 **(Connor paid for his crimes, but everyone else was happy.)(Everyone important in this fic, anyway.)**

 **That's all from me guys! Hope you enjoyed it the way I enjoy reviews! (Hint, hint.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I was planning to just end the story at the end of the last chapter, weak as the ending was. BUT. Then I got a review (my first review ever, if you're interested), asking for more. Thanks for reviewing me, guest! So here we go...**

Will rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, and considered just walking off again. He had never really twigged how hard it was to move your fist a few inches back and forward, but now he was faced with doing it, he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I can't. I'm going back-"

"To your cabin to brood for another few days? Not likely," Piper interrupted. "You are going to knock on that door, Will Solace, and ask him if he wants to see a movie with you. Our even just buy popcorn. But you are not chickening out again!"

Her eyes are set.

"But Piper, what if he-"

"Knock on that door now, or so help me Zeus I will charmspeak you into doing it!" All that came out in one breath.

Will sighed. Why was he here with Piper? Oh, yes. _Because I knew that if anyone could help me, she could._ The day after Will and Nico had been released from the box, Nico hadn't shown up to breakfast. Or archery. Or lunch, or advanced monster fighting, or capture the flag. Eventually, it dawned to Will that Nico was avoiding non-existent was he actually amused at Will's fear of the dark after all, or did Will read more into their conversation than there was? He had certainly thought that his feelings for Nico weren't just one-sided, but maybe he was wrong about that, the way he was about almost everything else?

Will hated looking for the pale skinned Italian every morning and the sickening lurch that accompanied his increased absence. Twice, he had gone to Nico's cabin, but had left before mounting the steps outside the door.

Then he made his biggest mistake: he went to Piper. She was head of Aphrodite cabin, and he knew she could help. However, ask she wanted him to do was what he had twice proved he could not do.

 _I'm useless at this._ Nico's words cane floating back to him.

 _I'm the most useless son of Hades ever..._

 _You're not useless... you're important to me._

"Fine!" And Will knocked on the shiny black door of Cabin 13.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry guys! I re-read my work and found some typos...**

 **Thanks to the four people who have reviewed me so far!**

Will waited a minute, sure that the door would simply not be opened, but he was wrong. _Again._ A pale hand that he recognised as Nico's pulled it open, and Nico poked his face out. Will stifled a gasp. Nico looked terrible, as though he hasn't slept in a week, and here looked mildly translucent, the way he did after pushing himself to hard. They're were heavy bags under his eyes.

"Will?"

 _So now what do I do? Any ideas, Piper? Piper?!_ But Piper had left Will to fend for himself. He took a deep breath.

"Uh, hi, Nico," he rubbed the back of his golden thatched head, awkwardly. "Um, may I, err, come in, please Nico?"

 _That was smooth,_ he chided himself. But Nico opened the door wider and stepped further into the cabin.

"Sure."

Will stepped inside and really did gasp this time. It seemed that Nico had made good on his threat to renovate the crypt themed cabin. The coffin-like beds (not one of Travis's best ideas, he reflected) had been replaced with queen sized versions with blood red quilts and golden frames. At each corner was a sphere twice the size of his clenched fists, inset with a glistening gemstone the size of a drachma- rubies on one bed, amethysts on another, emeralds, moon stones, sapphires, and pearls. Only two of the six beds showed signs of use, and only one looked like it had been used recently. _That must be Nico's,_ Will realised. _I can see where he's been lying from the imprint on the blankets..._

He jerked his mind away from this line of thought. The old, black obsidian walls remained, but tapestries covered most of the walls. Will could see some images of Elysium, one of the Fields of Asphodel, and several depicting various punishments from Hades. _Charming._ The floor was inlaid with gold and something white that looked like bone, showing a spiral that started at the edge of the room and working its way to the centre. It gave the unnerving feeling of being drawn into a black hole.

He suddenly realised that Nico had shut the door, and now they were standing a meter apart, Nico looking at him, and him looking at the decor. He had to say something...

"Um! I couldn't help but notice that you weren't at... anything really, this week... And I, uh..."

Nico interrupted his train of spoken thought. "Do you want to sit down, Will?" He sounded overly polite, but at least he wasn't yelling.

Will glanced around in confusion: he hadn't seen a chair when he looked the first time. Nico clapped his white hands together, and something moved from behind a tapestry where it had been concealed. Will took a step back as the zombie emerged, but it just stood and looked at Nico- _he must be controlling it._

"A couch, please Brian." _Brian?_ Will watched in amazement as the corpse- Brian- sank through the floor, then returned seconds later holding a black velvet chaise longue with gold and bone trim. He was beginning to see a theme here.

"Dismissed." Nico snapped his fingers, and Brian returned to the wall behind the needlework. When he turned his head back to Nico, Will was startled to see the other boy swaying slightly. When he caught Will looking, he raised an eyebrow and sat- collapsed, more like- onto the cushions.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine." They were back here again, were they? Will could handle this conversion.

"Where were you this week, Nico? I looked for you!"

"I... I got out of the way."

 _What?_ it's a couple of seconds before Will realised that he said it aloud. He looked at Nico in bewilderment, and Nico examined his bitten cuticles.

"I was the only other person in- in that box. You wouldn't have chosen me to look after if there was someone else, would you?" It's a rhetorical question. "I mean, why would you? Nobody really likes me, do they?" Another rhetorical question. "They might be scared of me, and they might hate me, and they wouldn't choose to comfort me if there were others. So I was getting out of the way for you to get on- get on with your life." Nico's voice hitched, and a tea splashed onto his long fists.

Will was stunned. This was why Nico had been avoiding him? _He's not ashamed of me or embarrassed- he doesn't hate me!_

"How could you think that?" He asked bitterly. "I thought you- I thought you hated me! But... instead..." He sniffed, vaguely surprised to find tears in his eyes.

This time, when he wrapped his arms around him, Nico returned the hug at once, clinging to Will like a drowning man clings to a life jacket. Running his right hand over the black hair that was ticking his neck, Will smiled.

"Nico."

"Mhes?" The reply was muffled by his woollen jumper.

"I meant everything I said in that box. All of it." Nico's breathing changed subtly.

"I meant it all too. Thanks, Will. For everything."

Will smiled happily, and buried his face in the boy's hair.

Piper smiled triumphantly and withdrew her face from the window through which she had been watching the scene. Things seemed to have turned out well between the two of them. She made her way to the dining pavilion, and tucked herself under Jason's arm.

"You look happy. Something happen?"

Piper caught Annabeth's eye across the pavilion and nodded. Annabeth smiled and went back to arguing with Percy (over the worth/worthlessness of bubblegum ice cream, of all things).

"It's been a good day," Piper replied.

 **Hi! Will probably add another few installments soon...**

 **This is getting long for what was originally planned as a one-shot!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi again! Is it possible to be addicted to writing fanfics? Cause if it is, I am!**

 **Oh, I've noticed my tenses a are are over the place and inconsistent. Sorry about that, but I'm not changing a thing!**

 **This is just some random fluff...**

 **I own nothing**!

Normally, Will went to sleep just as the sun set. That way, he left the world with memories of the light and, in the morning, returned to the light. That way, he didn't have to listen to the creaking of the cabin in the dark, or worry about whether the shadows were moving towards him.

And he hated himself for it. He hated feeling weak, hatred how his brothers and sisters could just roll over and ignore the monsters. Hated staying up all night with a torch on those nights he couldn't sleep. But he couldn't help it.

He jumped, and his trembling thumb flicked the switch. A thin beam of light lit the shadow behind Arla's dressing gown, revealing... nothing. Again. He wished he could make himself glow, the way Lee could, the way Isla and some others could.

But he couldn't.

Instead, he was hunched in a ball on his bottom-bunk mattress, waiting desperately for the sunrise.

He couldn't spend another night like this.

Keeping the beam of light from the bulb trained on the corners of the room, he slowly climbed out of bed and pulled on his shoes. They seemed too large, but he ignored it. Pushing open the door as quietly as he could, he slunk out into the moonless night.

Half way between his cabin and the infirmary (it was always light there, and Mike would appreciate relief from the night shift...), however, his torch flickered once, and died, leaving him stranded in the pitch dark.

He dropped the torch.

Closing his eyes, he told himself over and over:

 _Get to the infirmary. Get to the infirmary. Get to the infirmary..._

He knew his way to the infirmary blindfold. When he opened his eyes again, however, he was somewhere else.

Counting his breaths carefully, he examined the door, then knocked.

Whose ever cabin it was would just have to put up with him for the night...

 _I'll just say I'm checking for... harmful fungus._

"Will?" Yawned Nico. "What are you doing here? It's one in the mor- Will?"

He was safe now. Nico would keep his secret, and he would put him up for the night.

"Couldn't sleep. Got lost in the dark..." he muttered.

Nico nodded in understanding. "Come in."

The covers on the ruby bed were thrown back- Nico had clearly just got up.

"Will. Will!"

Nico was talking at him.

"Mmhmm...? What, sorry?"

"I said, you're shaking. Are you OK?"

He looked the haired boy straight in the eye.

"It's just the dark. I'll be okay in the morning."

Nico sat on the edge of his bed, and gestured to Will to join him.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Will laughed shakily.

"What's there to talk about? Just a stupid weakness..."

The other boy was looking at him in an altogether too understanding way. But all he said was,

"You should get some sleep."

He pointed at the quilt beside him.

"Thanks."

The bed felt to huge for just one person, but then Nico lay next to him. Curled up, back to back, Will felt himself relaxing for the first time in ages. The dark wasn't as bad with Nico there.

"You make the dark places lighter, Nico. Thanks."

For a moment, Will thought that Nico was asleep already. But then he responded:

"And you, Will? You make the tight spaces feel larger."

And then Will dropped off to sleep.

"Wake up Nico! Nico!" Jason pushed open the door to cabin 13. "Nico! We need help with the search party! Will's gone missing and- oh."

His shouts stopped abruptly as he looked at the two heads on the pillow: one dark, and one a pale gold thatch. He backed away just as Nico sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Jason? What're you doing...?" He glanced down at Will and smiled, then remembered Jason and turned scarlet. "We, uh..."

Jason was feeling rather warm around the collar.

"I'll just go and... call off the search party..." he mumbled embarrassedly, and left the cabin.


	6. Chapter 6

Will had an archery class at 10, every morning. He was supposed to be one of the ones demonstrating for younger campers, being not only a senior camper, but also a child of Apollo, but spent most of his time... not demonstrating.

He might hand out the bows and practice arrows. He might take the arrows off the targets. He might take the occasional shot, but he wasn't gifted at archery like some of his siblings (most of his arrows ended up just off the target, but a few had almost hit some of the other campers).

Thus, he often hated his 10 o'clock sessions. And the 1:30 ones he took on Fridays.

"Get up, Will."

He pressed his face into the pillow. "Mmphff..."

Then someone yanked the pillow away from his head.

"Hey! Don't do that- Nico?"

The dark haired boy looked back at him, clutching the pillow. "Get _up_ , Will."

 _Why's Nico in my cabin?_

Then:

 _Why am_ I _in_ Nico's _cabin...?_

Then he remembered.

"Wait. Did I fall asleep here?"

The other boy rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Everyone thought you were missing. I was woken up by Jason telling me to organise a search party. I can't believe you didn't wake up; you sleep like the dead. I've only just managed to wake you up and I've been trying for forty minutes!"

That didn't make sense. Why would Jason be organising a search party just because he wasn't in his cabin in the morning? Everyone knew that he was an early riser...

"Why was Jason organising a search party?"

Nico looked at him, clearly confused.

"... Uh, because you didn't show up for your archery session? And everyone thought you'd gone into the woods and not-"

"What?" Will sat up straight. "What do you mean, I didn't show up for my archery session? What time is it?"

Nico looked concerned now. He cleared his throat, and then looked at a tapestry of three men being forced into an oven.

"Will, it's half past twelve. You went to sleep, and just... slept. You're pushing yourself too ha-"

"HALF TWELVE!" Will yelped, "Why in _Hades_ didn't you wake me up?!"

"I just said. Also, you didn't wake up through Jason's shouting, so..."

Will sat and glared at the Italian. He'd missed an archery session in which he... probably hadn't been need actually, but still...

And he was wasting time in the extravagantly decorated cabin 13 when he should be in the infirmary (though there were next to no patients), helping out.

Then a thought struck him.

"What day is it?" He asked suspiciously.

Nico avoided his eyes. "Friday."

Will bit back a curse. He wasn't supposed to be in the infirmary- he had another class in forty-five minutes!

Pushing back the bed covers ( _Nico's bed covers_ , he thought, and went slightly pink), he slid his feet into what turned out to be Mike's shoes (he _thought_ they'd seemed a bit large last night...), and tried to leave the cabin.

Nico blocked his way.

He tried to go round him, but he moved so that he couldn't.

He tried again. The same thing happened.

"Nico," he growled, "let me through! I've got another session in half an hour!"

"Actually, you don't." The reply was short and clear, and he didn't understand it at all.

"What?"

Now it was Nico's turn to go pinkish.

He could feel his voice rising. "What did you do, Nico?"

This time the response was quieter. "I cleared your day for you."

Will just stared.

"Uh, I decided you needed a day off. I told Jason that you could do with a break, and that you were overworked, and he just... took it from there..." his voice tailed away. He was looking nervously at Will, who didn't feel so angry at him any more. At himself, sure, for being weak and scared and for sleeping in, but not so much at Nico.

Then a thought struck him.

"You didn't tell him, did you? About what I said in- in that box?"

Nico glanced at him, worry staining his dark eyes.

"About my... weakness. About the dark." The worry faded away to a strange mixture of relief and... offence?

"I wouldn't do that! But, I'm, it's not just today Jason cleared you for."

"It's not, is it?"

"No. Excluding the possibility of _another_ armageddon, you should be free all weekend!"

Will snorted. Nico tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't. It wasn't really funny, but within seconds, they were sitting slumped against the door, shaking with laughter.

Finally, Nico spoke up. "So, you are going to hang out with me this weekend."

Will pretended to think about it, but inside he was jumping at the chance to spend more time with the quiet, pale boy. "And do what, Death Boy?"

"Nothing. We will do nothing together this weekend. And don't call me Death Boy."

"Sounds good," said Will. And he meant it.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Thank every divine being that's listening for fanfic. I've had a really crappy day, and it feels so good to escape into someone else's life for a change...**

 **This chapter was just begging me to write it...**

After stopping back at cabin 7 for some fresh cloths ( _I can't believe I slept in Nico Di Angelo's cabin, wearing only pyjamas trousers..._ Will)( _and hippocampus trousers at that_ ), the boys walked over to the dining pavilion. Being past 1:30, only a few stragglers were left there: Clovis, using a slice of bread for a pillow; Nyssa, trying to add some steam powered legs to table 9; and Percy and Annabeth, discussing blue jelly babies ("They don't exist, and would totally pointless if they did. What would they taste of, Percy?!" "... Sour raspberry.") Will looked over at their table as Annabeth laughed, then looked away quickly as she pressed her mouth to Percy's. Glancing at Nico, Will saw that the other boy had turned pink and was staring intensely at his shoes.

He grabbed two plates from a stack, and started piling food on them, but Nico snatched one.

"I can do it myself. _You're_ the one that needs to take a break..."

When Nico tried leave Will at his table and go and sit at table 13, however, Will protested. "You can't sit alone today! You made me drop all my duties; the least you can do is sit at my table with me!"

The Italian muttered something about high maintenance, then dumped his plate unceremoniously next to Will's. When he took his seat, though, he was grinning.

Will didn't really know what he was eating (he was too busy staring at Nico, after all), and was surprised to find that he'd finished his plate. The other boy, however, had barely touched his food.

"Aren't you going to eat that?"

"Not hungry. I don't eat much anyway..."

"No, no, no. You will eat this plate, Death Boy. You're not leaving 'till you do." Nico looked like arguing, so he added for good measure:

"Doctor's orders."

Nico half laughed.

"I'm not fading at the moment, Solace! Nor am I , you're not my doctor. Also, _I'm_ the one taking care of _you_ this weekend. Therefore, I'm the doctor."

"... if I agree, will you promise to eat full meals?"

The pale boy smiled. "Deal."

Neither of them looked up as Percy led a giggling Annabeth away into the forest.

Will didn't want to spend the rest of the afternoon in the cabin, not after sleeping in all morning; he needed to be doing something. Thus, he was pretty grateful when Nico suggested that they go hunting in the woods.

Will took a sword from the armoury (metal work was another thing on the list of Things He Was Bad At) (his own sword was a blackened lump of disfigured metal), Nico his own stygian iron one, both boys grabbed a tube of pringles, then they wandered into the trees.

Over the next hour, they came across two giant geckos and a bugbear (all deceased now); a stash of water balloons and silly string (probably one of the Stoll brothers' emergency banks); Lou Ellen and some other Hecate girls trying to turn the leaves on a cluster of silver birches purple; and Percy and Annabeth making out behind a tree. Finally, they found a clearing free of monsters, traps, and couples in which to enjoy their 'picnic'.

The sun shining through the leaves above their heads gave the clearing an almost faerie-like feeling, and the trees seemed to be whispering around them. If they sat quietly, they could just about hear the gurgling of a small stream somewhere near by.

"It's like magic, isn't it?" sighed Will.

Nico snorted. "We live in a world of magic, Sunshine. This is just an area that shows how you think it should be represented. My power isn't like this."

"Lighten up, Death Boy. And when did I become Sunshine?"

Nico stood up and looked away from Will. His neck had turned red. "You have a nickname for me... and Sunshine suits you."

Will stood up too.

 _This is it_ , he thought.

He moved closer to Nico.

"...Will?"

Nico was standing with his back against a tree, and so could not retreat as Will advanced on him.

 _I am going to kiss Nico Di Angelo._

Closing his eyes, he leaned in to the shorter boy.

He hadn't expected Nico to be this warm. He was expecting his mouth to feel as cold as his hands. He was also expecting him to be firmer than this. And he was not expecting him to feel like a 12 year-old girl.

Will jerked his eyes open to see a giggling dryad where Nico had been.

 _What the...?_

Backing away quickly, his face colouring, he looked around for the Italian. But he wasn't there. Meanwhile, the dryad he'd kissed by accident had been joined by a second, taller one, and they were having a whispered conversation, glancing interestedly at him every few seconds.

He had to get out of there. Nico had shadow travelled somewhere, leaving him to make a complete fool of himself.

 _How could he?_

His skin feeling like it was going to melt away, he sprinted back towards the ring of cabins, praying to every god he could think of that no one had been watching.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Hallo! I'm probably going to update this almost every day. Thanks to ask the people who have reviewed me, it means a lot!**

 **This chapter is mainly a tidy up from the end of the last chapter and then some weak fluff at the end, but I do have an idea for a possible plot, coming soon...**

~ **Fi (Book** **Fi** **end)**

With no desire to go back to his own cabin, where all his cabin mates would be, and a desperate desire not to stay in the woods much longer, Will found himself by the door of Cabin 13 before he had even thought about what to do.

 _Nico should be in here_ , he reasoned. _And if he isn't, I can wait..._

Pushing open the heavy door, he let himself into the cool interior of the cabin. A few extra couches had been added since he'd last been here, along with a fire place. A row of skulls lined the walls in intervals of four or five metres, all filled with eerie green fire.

 _At least there was a source of light_ , Will thought absently, _albeit a creepy one._

However, interesting as the evolution in the cabins decor was, none of it was the boy he'd just tried to kiss.

Looking around the cabin more carefully, he came to conclusion that Nico was not there. Nor had he been there since he had grabbed his sword earlier that day.

With no pressing demands on his time, Will settled down on one of the couches to await his return.

Maybe half an hour later, someone knocked on the door.

"Nico? Nico? You in there? I've got news!" It sounded like Travis, but it might have been Connor.

Nico wasn't in there, and Will couldn't be bothered to answer.

Finally, a further two hours on, the door opened and in wandered Nico, a piece of paper in his hand. There was a greyish pallor to his cheeks, and his hands were shaking slightly. He looked miserable.

Will tapped the arm of the chair (he'd decided it was made of bone). When he saw him, Nico looked embarrassed and also... hurt? He opened his mouth to say something, but Will got there first.

"You vanished on me."

Nico stared at his black converse. "I'm sorry, Will, I-"

"You could have said something! Or just pushed me away if you didn't want me to-" he went red, and looked away from the shorter boy.

"Look, Will, I didn't mean-"

"To disappear on me? Really?" Will was irritated to find his cheeks wet. He was angry, he was shouting at Nico. _Now is a bad time to start crying, Solace..._

"No, I didn't, I-"

"I opened my eyes, and do you know what I saw? Do you?"

Nico looked close to tears.

"No, Will. I didn't mean to leave you-"

"I WAS KISSING A DRYAD, NICO! YOU VANISHED AND I FOUND MYSELF KISSING A TREE!" Will's voice broke. But Nico found his at last.

"I KNOW! I JUST SAW!"

Will felt like he'd been hit in the face.

"W-what?" He stammered.

Nico held up the paper. It was a picture of Will, his hands on the shoulders of a brown haired girl. He was kissing her. There was no doubt about it; it had been taken that afternoon.

"That's what Connor wanted! I'm gonna kill him!"

"Huh?" Nico looked confused .

"He knocked this afternoon, and I didn't answer. He must have stuck it on the door. But! Where in Hades did you go? I made a complete fool of myself thanks to your vanishing trick!"

Nico almost smiled, but stopped at the expression on Will's face.

"Hades."

Will made an 'explain' gesture with his hand.

"He dragged me down there to pass judgement on a special case." Nico looked wretched. "I yelled at him for a while, but he still made me stay for the whole trial..."

Will felt ridiculously cheerful all of a sudden.

"So you didn't ditch me because I tried to..." He went pink and tailed off.

"No! I really didn't."

Getting up and walking over to the dark haired boy, Will stared into his face.

"Okay. I believe you. But I'm going to have to try that kiss thing again..."

"And I need to be certain that the thing with the dryad was just a fluke," smiled Nico, and tilted his face up towards Will's.

Leaning down, he started closing the gap between their faces. His heart seemed to be about to give out, but he locked the part of him that cared into the corner of his head that he tended to ignore...

Will kept his eyes open until Nico closed his. Then, certain that the boy wasn't about to disappear again, he closed his eyes too...

BANG!

Will and Nico jumped apart, both red in the face, both glaring at the figure in the open doorway. As their eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight, the saw Annabeth standing there.

"Nico?"

She took one look at them and went pink.

"Sorry, I can come back later..."

Will noticed another scrap of paper in her hand: he'd bet anything that it was another picture of him and the dryad.

He half wanted to slam the door in her face, but the moment with Nico was gone. He stumbled back to the couch.

"No, it's fine."

"What did you need, Annabeth?" Nico's tone was cordial, but his shoulders were tensed. He, too, was resentful of Annabeth's intrusion.

"I, uh, just wanted to warn you about this picture..." her gaze fell on the copy that Nico had dropped. "And I can see that you both know. I'll go now..."

Still with a light dusting of red over the bridge of her nose, she walked off.

The conch shell for dinner sounded in the distance.

Will sighed and turned back to Nico. "Hungry?"

"More _irritated_ than hungry, really."

"I'll eat. You can kill Connor and/or Travis."

"Sounds good to me, Sunshine."

"C'mon then, Death Boy."

Neither of them mentioned what had passed between them in the cabin. Will half furious with Hades and Annabeth, and yet part strangely relieved. Not that he didn't want to kiss Nico, more that he was _scared_ to do so.

 _You're a coward_ , he told himself.

At the campfire, he told himself over and over to take Nico's hand in the dark, but couldn't make himself do it.

 _Why was it easier to fall asleep next to the boy than to reach out and grab his wrist?_

He was grateful when Nico folded his own hand around Will's. _He's braver than me..._


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Sorry for the continued non-kissing. Well, not really. ;-) But I will eventually get a kiss in there. First, however... Also, I'm not sure what I did to this chapter. Just please don't hate me after you read it, okay?**

When Will woke up the next morning, he was in Cabin 13 again. This time, however, he wasn't in the ruby bed with Nico; he was sprawled across the moon stone one. Nico was still snoring soundly in his own pile of blankets, and when Will drew back one velvet curtain, he could see the sun just peeking up over the edge of the horizon. A bird chirped nearby, and he could just about make out two figures sneaking out of the Aphrodite cabin and into the Hermes one. A light was burning in the Athena cabin- someone had clearly been working all night. He hoped it wasn't Malcolm. He got really clumsy when he was tired, and dealing with second degree burns wasn't on Will's list of things he wanted to do today...

As he watched, the light flickered out. Good. Whoever it was had decided to at least get some sleep in the two and a half hours before the breakfast conch.

Something scuttled across the outside of the window sill, and Will recoiled, then took a closer look. The skeleton of a small mouse was sitting by the glass, nibbling on a small piece of... cheese? Mushroom? Absently wondering how many skeletal creatures were lodged around the Hades Cabin, Will walked over to the cupboard and looked inside. There were a few small piles of bone, a book (Danté's Inferno), and , at the back, a small collection of figurines that he recognised as mythomagic idols. Busy as he was examining Nico's possessions, he did not notice the two figure creeping from the Athena cabin towards Ares and Nemesis, paper clutched in their hands.

Nico snorted loudly. Will pondered letting him sleep for a while, but...

 _Nah_.

After Nico had threatened Will's life in several, colourful ways, summoned a large pile of assorted bones, sent them away again, and collapsed onto a couch, Will discovered that he needn't have bothered. Whatever the Stoll brothers did in their cabin, the Aphrodite kids did not appreciate it. The entire camp (possibly excluding the Hypnos cabin) woke to the horrified screams of twenty odd angry people.

At breakfast, over three quarters of their cabin had exotic, blue hair. The brothers did not show up.

"Will. Will!"

"Hmmm?" Will had been staring at Drew's ponytail, and wondering why the Nemesis cabin was glaring at him. He had completely missed whatever it was that had been said to him.

"I said," repeated a vexed Nico, "that we are going to go canoeing." He sat back and basked in Will's stunned expression.

"I thought you'd enjoy it."

"Can- Canoeing?" Will splattered, "Nico, I can't-"

"You can and you will. I'm getting a picnic, and then we're going to find somewhere to eat it."

Nico set his jaw.

 _I'm fighting a losing battle here,_ Will thought, and agreed with the other boy.

Things did not, however, go as planned. No sooner had the two split up; Nico to get the picnic from his cabin, and Will to get a medi-kit from the infirmary, then their plans were flipped over.

Will felt a hand grab him from behind, then someone put a hand over his mouth: making him unable to cry for help as he was dragged into the forest.

After maybe ten minutes of walking (being dragged), he was thrown roughly against a cliff face. His head connected with the rough rock wall, and he saw stars. When his vision cleared, he saw three people looming over him.

"Hi, Benji, Sy, Darla." Talking hurt his head. "Is there a reason for your- oof!" Will doubled over as Benji rammed a fist into his stomach. The Ares boy was a strong.

Then Darla spoke up. The Nemesis girl had a way with words, and a thirst for vengeance. Four of her siblings had been among the dead in the fight against Rome. "We were in the Athena cabin this morning." Her voice was slightly rough. "Guess what we found?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Will answered anyway. "I don't know. What's it to do with me?" Benji aimed a kick at him and he shrank away.

Darla continued.

"We found notes on the Roman war. We found proof that your boyfriend" -Will almost protested that Nico wasn't his boyfriend _(yet),_ but thought better of it- "knew about both camps."

"Yes, but everyone knew that al-" Will broke off when Benji's boot caught him in the ribs. Darla raised her voice:

"We found proof that Nico could have stopped the war if he'd shared the information. Underlined. In red ink. He could have saved lives."

Will felt his ribs gingerly. They didn't _seem_ broken.

"He's a traitor, and he must be punished." Darla's voice was like ice. "We start with you."

Will gaped at her. "Why are you punishing _me?"_

Sy spoke up for the first time. "It's a warning for him. And it will be punishment for you both, you for trusting him."

Will opened his mouth to object, but then the two Ares boys dragged him into a cave in the cliff face, and the dark swallowed him.

"Traitor." A blow to his midriff.

"Traitor." A foot caught his cheek and he tasted blood.

 _Focus on that. Focus on this._ Not _the dark. The blood_.

"Traitor." He curled into a ball as blows continued to rain down on his back and shoulders.

He had thought that most people liked him. He'd never expected that anything like this would happen.

"Traitor." A fierce blow to his chest: he felt a rib snap.

Tears were running down his face, whether from the dark or the pain, or both, he wasn't sure.

"Traitor." A powerful kick caught him just above his right ear, and he felt his conscious leaving him.

 _Traitor, traitor, traitor..._

The last thing he saw before he faded away was a skeletal hand pushing out of the earth next to his face... but then he blacked out.

 **A/N As I said, please don't hate me! I don't know what happened there...**

 **Reviews appreciated. Will probably update tomorrow night.**

 **~Fi**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Sorry again for the end of the last chapter, I'm never sure how my stuff is gonna end when I start it, but when I write and I have an idea, I just have to use it...**

 **Thanks for reviewing, guys. Here is the promised update.**

It hurt. Will lay still as waves of pain smashed against him and washed over him. He kept his eyes closed, worried about what he would see when he opened them. What was going on? How long had he lain here? Listening hard over the noise of his pulse, he tried to detect his attackers. Nothing. No footsteps. Nothing.

 _Where did they go? Why had they stopped?_

Will wondered if he was dead. If he was, at least he could still tell Nico to watch out. He wouldn't have thought that death hurt this much, but then he'd never died before, or talked to anyone who had. _Maybe this was what dying always felt like_.

Then he heard breathing. It was rapid and shallow, and slightly panicked. Someone was sitting next to him; sitting quite close judging by how loud their breathing seemed. This reassured Will: if he was dying, he shouldn't be able to hear anything...

The other person was saying something, he realised. They sounded tired and sad, and yet slightly desperate.

"Will, please. Wake up! Please wake up for me. P-please..." something warm landed on his hand. Was the other person crying?

"Come on, Will. Open your _stupid_ eyes! Will!"

 _I should probably see what's going on..._

With a tremendous effort, Will cracked open one eye. The other person caught their breath.

"That's it, Will. Wake up."

It was dark. Something white was just in front of his face, though, and as he adjusted to the darkness, he realised it was a hand. Only one person he knew had hands that pale.

"Ni-Nico?" That hurt his chest, and a nasty throbbing started in his temple.

Nico responded at once. "Yeah, Will, I'm here. Are you alright?"

Will pondered that question as he tried to open his eyes fully. One of them opened. The other... didn't. That gave him his answer.

"No." Holy Hephaestus, that _hurt._

"No, of course you're not. Why did I even ask that? You look about as far from 'alright' as it's possible to get!"

"Thanks, Nico."

Nico chuckled weakly. "Sorry."

"Am I still -in the -cave?" His voice was interspersed with small gasps of pain. Definitely a broken rib, maybe two or three. There went his plans for the week. His headache increased.

"Yeah, sorry. I know you hate the dark-" Will winced "-, but I didn't want to move you... I didn't know how much damage they did. Do you want to try and sit up?"

It was probably a bad idea.

"Thanks."

Several painful minutes later, they had managed to manoeuvre Will into a sitting position; he leant against one of the walls of the cave.

Now that he was looking Nico full in the face, he could see that the pale boy was exhausted.

"Tell me what- _ow_! What happened," he requested.

As he took inventory of his injuries, Nico began.

"I got back to where we planned to meet, and you weren't there. I checked in the infirmary" -his left leg was just bruised, not broken- "and they said they hadn't seen you, so I retraced your steps." Right leg, also fine, if tender. His ankle, however... not broken, but...

"Nothing," Nico continued, "so I started shadow jumping around in the forest. I thought maybe you were planning to jump out on me, you know?"

Left arm: fine, but very painful.

"And then I saw Darla," Nico's face twisted with hatred, "standing outside this cave. I could hear chanting from inside, and when I walked up to her, she drew her sword on me." He held up a cut on his hand. "Took me by surprise, but I knocked her out. Then I checked the cave. I could hear them chanting..."

A large cut and several small gazes on his right arm- that was the one that had been trapped under him.

"I got in here and saw... you know what I saw. And then I kinda... exploded." Nico looked away from Will for the first time.

"What happened?"

"Skeletons." Will recalled the hand shooting up from the earth before he had blacked out. "Sy and Benji got pretty much what they gave, really. Then I went outside and grabbed Darla. All three of them are somewhere in Australia..."

That explained why he looked so tired.

Torso. Heavy bruising, but probably no internal bleeding. Second and third ribs broken on his left, and the third rib on the right side. "You have to go back for them, you know."

Nico scowled.

" _Nico_."

"Will, they were going to _kill_ you! I'm not bringing them back here! Not now, not _ever_! Anyway, they'll come round soon. They'll probably be back here as soon as they work out where they are..."

Will couldn't really argue with that.

Nico looked back at him. "I'm going to tell Clarisse about it, though. She can control her cabin, and Nemesis won't touch you without allies."

"You thought that through."

Neck, fine. Shoulders, fine. Face...

"I had some time to think. While I waited for you to... to wake up."

Will blinked with his one good eye, and his head throbbed particularly painfully. "Why? How long was I out?"

Face. Split lip, broken nose.

"They broke my nose!"

Nico glanced at it. "Your nose ithe least of your problems..."

Blood was matted into his hair around a large lump above one ear, hence the headache. Ouch... And a huge bruise in the place of one eye.

"About an hour and a half. I I was worried that you weren't planning on waking up..."

Will winced again. An hour and a half?

Placing his fingers over his chest, he tried to push some magic into it to speed up his healing. No joy. Maybe he couldn't heal himself...? But then, he'd never been able to heal bones...

Nico seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Can't you do that healing thing?"

"Apparently not..."

Nico placed a hand on his arm. "Come on, let's get to the infirmity. I'd shadow-travel us, but I don't have enough energy, and-" his words were cut short by a gasp from Will, and he jerked his hand away.

"No, come back! Put your hand on my arm again."

The dark haired boy looked worriedly at him.

"Just do it, Nico! Good, now focus on me. Focus on my ribs..." Will put his fingers back over his chest, and there was a snapping sound. He cried out, but the pain stopped quickly. Feeling them again, he discovered that his ribs were no longer broken.

"Nico... how did you _do_ that?"

Nico backed away. "I didn't _do_ anything! It was all you. All you!"

Will shook his head. "No, I couldn't. But together, we... we mended my bones!"

He grabbed Nico's hand and touched a bruise on his forearm. Nothing happened.

"It must be something to do with the skeleton thing you can do, so we can't fix my nose, 'cause its cartilage... but hey! When we work together, we can fix bones!" He grinned at his saviour (it hurt, but he did it anyway), who grinned back, if a little reluctantly.

"Come on then, Sunshine. Let's get you to the infirmary. And then we'll have a talk with Clarisse."

Will stood up slowly, being careful of his tender limbs and back. When he tried to walk, however, he found that he couldn't.

 _My ankle really is sprained_.

"Um, I could use some help here..." he blushed slightly.

Nico rolled his eyes, then ducked under his arm to help support his weight.

It was only as they left the cave in the light of the late afternoon sun that Will realised that the dark had not held such menace for him then. Nico seemed to keep the shadows at bay.

 **A/N** **Hope you're enjoying it! This chapter was mainly to fix the end of the last chapter, but we had some important stuff in there... hopefully more fluff next time (and important plot stuff...)**

 **~Fi**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Hiya guys! This is more plotty stuff carrying on from last time, but there is a tiny (read, very tiny) bit of fluff...**

 **Enjoy, please!**

It was difficult, but Will eventually managed to persuade Nico to take him to Cabin 5 before going to the infirmary.

"But after that, you're going straight there. No more detours!"

"If that's what you want..."

"What I want is to get somewhere you can sit down! You're heavy!"

"I'm also half blind, with a sprained ankle."

Will won that argument. Nico grumbled all the way down the hill, but when they reached the collection of cabins he stopped.

After they had navigated their way carefully over the ground before the cabin (only a few individuals knew where the landmines were, and they were not part of that group) and hammered on the door (they had to hammer, anything quieter than that would simply not be heard over the 'music' blasting from the speaker by the window), they were admitted by a girl of about 13. She stared openly at Will as she took them down a staircase to a spacious office. It was crammed full of spoils of war: fangs, claws, a hydra head, a pair of harpy wings, and a hunter's bow were easily visible, along with several other, nastier objects.

Clarisse did a double take when she saw Will's face. "Someone blacked your eye for you, then? Don't know, don't care. Shove off, I'm busy."

Will wrinkled his nose, or tried to. He kept forgetting that it too had been broken... Clarisse's attitude, whilst expected, was _not_ one of the things he felt he could cope with just then. He was about to say something, when Nico ducked out from under his arm and stepped towards the girl, leaving him to wobble on one foot, then hop backwards and collapse onto a three legged stool.

" _Your cabin-mates_ didn't just 'black his eye', Clarisse," he growled. Will shivered slightly. The aura coming off the Italian was positively lethal. He was glad it wasn't directed at him.

Clarisse's face displayed nothing but shock. _"My_ cabin mates? What're you saying?"

This could be interesting. Normally, Will preferred to fight his own battles, but he wasn't feeling _quite_ up to arguing with anybody just yet. Plus, Nico seemed to be doing fine without help.

"You heard me. Two Ares campers cornered him in the woods. They decided that we could be rid of him, and took it upon themselves to act on it. Oh, yes. And Darla was involved." As he spoke - spat, more like -, he had walked right up to the girl before him, and now they were almost toe to toe. Small curls of black fog drifted from his shoulders. To her credit, Clarisse did not back away.

"Right. Who was it, and where are they?"

"So it wasn't your idea?"

She looked offended at this. "Of course not! If _I_ decided to _kill_ our best healer, then one, I'd be stupid and need replacing; and _two,_ I'd do it with a _knife._ My guess I'd that they were just trying to cause pain."

"It worked." Will's voice was thick due to the build up of blood in his nose.

"Who was it?" Clarisse was suddenly business like.

"Sy and Benji," came the furious reply.

"Where are they now? I _can't_ believe you would let them get away with beating up your boyfriend..."

Will felt his face heat up. He and the other boy spoke together:

"He's _not_ my boyfriend!" _(Yet, anyway.)_ Clarisse rolled her eyes, but didn't press the point.

Nico shook his dark head and continued.

"You're right about the other part, though, Clarisse. They're currently cooling their heels in Australia somewhere. They should be back... _later_ rather than sooner."

Clarisse looked satisfied. "Nice. I'll find some nasty job for them when they get back."

She turned her back on them and walked off. The meeting was over.

"Infirmary."

"No." Will shook his aching head. It hadn't hurt at all during their talk in Cabin 5, but was back in full force now.

"INFIRMARY!"

 _"NO!"_

"Will, you can't even walk. Your face is a complete state, and I'd wager you have other bruises than just your eye and ear. You should at least get that cut looked at!"

Will looked past Nico's concerned face and over to the white block that was the building that he was trying to avoid.

"Nico, if I go to the infirmary, what do you think will happen?"

"How hard did they hit you? In the infirmary," Nico said slowly and patiently, "they will _heal_ you. That's what they do in _infirmaries,_ Will."

Will rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant. What I _meant_ was, what will they do when they see what happened?"

Nico paused for a moment, then continued dragging him towards the building. "Firstly, heal you with that healey magic you do. Then, they'll try and find Sy, Benji, and Darla, and kill them. Win-win!"

Will shook his head. "I'm the only one that does the _'healey magic',_ as you put it. Also, I don't want them to revenge on them. Isn-"

"How could you _not_ want revenge?! Okay then, they'll get revenge for me. Now, stop _arguing. I'm_ the doctor this weekend, remember?"

Will opened his mouth, but then the world flipped inside-out, upside-down, went dark, and then did it again, only in reverse.

Will retched. "Nico! You _know_ I hate shadow travel!"

"Well, we're in the infirmar-"

"OHMYGODS WILL!" Someone screamed nearby, and he looked up to see Kayla running towards him. Nico stepped back abruptly, and Will toppled over.

 _"OW!_ Gods, Nico!"

Kayla turned her head over her shoulder, and screeched, "Mike! Get in here! _Mike!"_

Mike dashed in to the room, scalpel in hand as a makeshift weapon, and peered into the corners for monsters. Having ruled out an attack, he glanced at Kayla, then over to Nico, then finally at Will on the floor. He swore. "What _happened?"_

With his and Kayla's help, Will stood up and limped over to one of the free beds, where he sat down heavily. "I tripped over a tree ro-"

Kayla raised an eyebrow. "I doubt that."

Will would have been happy to leave it there, but then Nico opened his mouth and told them everything.

Mike and Kayla's faces grew steadily more shocked as he spoke. When he had finished, Kayla reached absently for a roll of bandages, and started wrapping them around Will's right arm. "Mike, alert the rest of the cabin, please. Then tell Athena and Hermes. Whoever you like. No-one in Nemesis gets off free." Will started to protest; she set his nose roughly, and he gave a squeak of pain instead. "No, Will. This is our decision: they _don't_ get away with this." Mike left.

Will had a feeling she meant it. He glared at Nico. _Does he even understand what he's started? This is war!_

Kayla seemed to be thinking along the same lines, for as she finished binding his ankle she spoke again. "This is war now."

She turned to leave, but Nico stopped her. "Is that all you're gonna do for him?"

"What do you expect me to do, Nico?"

"Ambrosia! Nectar!"

She shook her head, "Will will explain," and left.

The other looked at him in askance.

"I'm intolerant, Nico. Can't have either Ambrosia or Nectar... I just have to wait for it to heal."

Nico's scowl deepened. He strode up to Will, who was now reclining against the pillows on the bed, and bent slightly so that their faces were on the same level.

"Heal fast, then, Sunshine."

He pressed his lips to Will's forehead- the only unbruised part of his face, excluding his mouth- then turned abruptly and swept from the room. "I'm going to bring them back to face the music..."

Will brought his left hand up and touched the face where Nico had kissed him. "I'll try, Death Boy."

 **A/N What do you think?! This is getting more serious... (I don't write the story: it writes itself. I just put the words on the page...)**

 **Reviews are always appreciated! I'm not a doctor, so if you think the medical stuff I'd wring then please tell me!**

 **Thanks guys!**

 **~Fi**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N This is just a place filler, really. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed me, shoutouts go to JoJo Dragons(thanks!), Silver Huntress of Artemis (I'm glad you enjoy it so much. Also, I'm actually a girl...), and guest (I thought the Ambrosia thing was clever too, glad you agree), and thanks for OVER 3000 VIEWS, GUYS! Woah, that was loud.**

 **So yeah, anyway. Enjoy!**

Over the next twelve hours, Will was visited by a steady stream of visitors, all of whom seemed to want nothing more than to gape at his injuries. Several people asked him of it was true that the attack had originated from the Nemesis cabin, but they never listened when he tried to ask them to do nothing.

The few exceptions from the general rule came in the form of Annabeth, Percy, and Piper. They sat by him as he told his part of the story, and when he was done, the expression on Percy's face was murderous.

"If I ever get my hands on them..."

"No, Percy, don't. I know it sounds dumb, but I don't want to see them punished." Then he appealed directly to Piper. "Please, Piper. Don't let this happen. You can do something; you could charmspeak them out of it!"

Piper seemed to consider it, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, Will, but something has to be done to that cabin..."

Only Annabeth seemed to understand. "I'll do my best, Will, but I don't think it will be good enough..."

Whatever his other faults, Will was a fast healer, and by the following morning could hobble around a little. He took advantage of this to go and see what was likely to happen to his home in the next few days.

Nico had not yet returned from collecting the offenders, so he took to wondering around alone.

The camp seemed serious about the whole war thing. From what he could see, most of the cabins had sided with Apollo, but a few (Ananke, Alastor, Até, Eris and Enyo, Zelus, and, for some reason, Pheme) very minor cabins (with about one demigod each) had chosen to join Nemesis. Nike cabin had chosen to stay 'neutral', but were still running around all over the place, trying to start fights.

He got to watch as people on both sides rushed about, sharpening weapons, practising spells, turning into pigs ("Lou! Turn them back!", "Sorry Miranda!"), singing songs, stealing from people (*cough* *cough* Travis and Connor *cough* *cough*), and generally doing what demigod did best: jumping into something feet first, and only looking properly when it was too late to change anything.

By evening, Will was leaning against the railing outside the infirmary, and watching as the Ares cabin moved their landmines to just inside a row of spikes that they had previously made, facing the 'enemy' base (i.e. Nemesis cabin).

Someone moved behind him, and for a second he was sure it was Nico- but then they spoke.

"Y'know, this was not what I was expecting from this camp."

"Apo- Dad! What are you doing here?"

Apollo winked. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."

"... A god named Fred?.?"

"You only needed one question mark there, William. And yes. Zeus..."

"Doesn't like it when you meddle in our affairs," Will finished. "We know. Are you here for any real reason? Or are you just watching?" Yes, he knew that he was being disrespectful, but his face hurt, and he still had a headache. Apollo seemed to understand. He didn't incinerate his son, anyway.

"I'd heal you, but that would be-"

"Interfering."

"Yes." Apollo looked sheepish. "I can, however, give you a hikau."

He cleared his throat.

 _"Campers start siding,_

 _Things will end in a battle,_

 _And a kiss in the end."_

Will was about to point out that neither the second or third lines had the right amount of syllables, that this was already a battle, and what in _Hades_ did he mean by _'a kiss in the end_ ', but when he turned around, his father had gone.

Jason flew in moments later, followed by Frank the Hyphen ( **Gryphen, Sorry. I could change it, but...** ), with Hazel on his back. After going over the familiar 'What in _Tartarus_ happened to you... let's _kill_ them', they set off to make themselves useful, and Will returned to his bed.

A Nike kid ran past outside, screaming, "Down with participation! Nico must triumph! Darla must triumph! WE MUST HAVE A VICTOR!"

 _Nice to know I'm surrounded by sane people who know what they want, don't want two opposite things at once, and always look before they leap,_ Will reflected, and sank into an uneasy sleep.

 **A/N Yes, I did just bring the God called Fred thing into this. It's from the first book they meet Nico, after all...**

 **That list of God names? Off the top of my head, I can say that Pheme is the godess of celebrity and gossip and fame, or something. The rest, Google if you can be bothered, and forget about it if you can't. Sorry.**

 **I wrote a random Rachna earlier, so check it out and review by all means. It's called 'No demigod shall heal your heart', I think.**

 **And finally, please review me.**

 **~Fi**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Okay, shoutout to Marcus Bond (if I do get writer's block, I'll send you some ice. I do try with the grammar, I'm glad you noticed. Thanks for the amazing review!)**

 **Also, I can only see reviews when they drop into my e-mail inbox because is being a little glitchy... but I'm still getting them. Thanks guys!**

 **Also (too many alsos), I've noticed that almost very chapter starts or ends with Will being asleep. Not sure how that happened...**

 **And I've been using a lot of italics recently...**

In his dream, Will saw Annabeth, a silver dagger lodged in her stomach. He saw Thalia leap over the defended and charge the Nemisis cabin, followed by a dozen hunters. He saw Hestia, who shook her head.

"What happened to this home?"

He found he could talk to her. "Can't you stop this, Lady?"

She smiled sadly. "The gods do not take sides in this squabble."

Then the image dissolved, and he woke to a discordant cacophony of chaos. It seemed that Nico had returned; with him were Sy, Benji, and Darla.

He sat up and looked out the window. The two Ares boys were being dragged by Clarisse- who had one of their ears in each hand- towards Cabin 5. She was yelling at the top of her voice at them, and they had the decency to look sheepish. As they moved, several gold drachma fell out of their pockets.

 _Mercenaries, huh?_

That meant that Darla would take most of the punishment. They would have minor punishment for a lack of common sense...

What was it called?

 _Oh, yes. Lemming syndrome_.

Will got up and limped slowly over to the sink. His ankle was mostly healed, but it still wasn't great to walk on...

Splashing water over his face, he glanced up at the mirror. He did not recognise the boy that looked back at him.

Sure, he remembered the golden hair- crumpled and messy, like a haystack after a hurricane; the slightly pointed ears; but other than that, the boy was a stranger.

One eye was puffy and the skin was bluish- it was probably a deep purple when he'd been brought in. His nose was straight, but red and also slightly puffy. There was a small lump above one ear.

"Like what you see, Sunshine?"

Will turned to see Nico leaning against a wall. He looked almost as pale as he had after shadow travelling from Rome with the Athena Parthenos, and his voice was strained.

"Not really, Death Boy. But I guess it looked worse two days ago, huh?"

Nico looked guilty. "Yeah."

Walking up to the other boy, Will flicked his nose. Or tried to. Because his right arm was still bandaged, he had to use his left hand, and his hand-eye coordination wasn't great for his left.

 _"Ow!"_ Nico yelped, clapping a hand over one eye.

Will chuckled. "Sorry."

Nico took his hand away from his face and put it on Will's shoulder, pulling them together.

At that moment, there was an explosion from outside.

Will paled, then ran out the door in the direction of the sound. Nico cursed and followed him out.

One of Hephaestus cabin's automatronic war horses had stumbled over the landmines.

No-one was badly injured, but a few people were hit by small chunks of shrapnel. Rushing towards the victims, Will passed Sherman Yang and Harley having a furious row about it ("That was our prototype! Now what do we do, moron?", "Don't call me a moron! You should have been more careful, cogs-for-brains!", "Who're you calling...").

Kayla looked up as he sprinted towards the makeshift healers tent. "Will! What are you doing?!"

"I'm healing people! It's what I do, isn't it!?"

Kayla flung her hands up around her head, threatened Nico with death by poor music and poetry if he didn't make Will take it easy, then grabbed a bow and quiver and ran off to join the battle now raging around them.

It didn't seem like anyone was trying to kill anyone else; at least, Will couldn't see anyone trying to behead or disembowl anyone else, but there were always 'accidental' serious injuries.

He pulled an arrow from a Hermes kid's upper arm, then gave them a square of nectar. He tried to make them stay, but they ran out to join the battle anyway. He bandaged Katie Gardiner's ankle- she'd been caught in a hunting trap- and begged her to stop, but she ignored him.

Thalia ran out of the forest and onto the field, followed by Pheobe and several other hunters. Will shivered and tried not to think about the rest of his dream.

When Pollux appeared with a broken leg, he grabbed Nico's arm and placed his hand over the break. He felt a surge of power, then the boy cried out in pain. When he removed his hand, however, the bone was whole again.

Like those before him, Pollux chose to go out and rejoin the fight. "There are less of them, and they have no healer, Will! This will be over by dinner!" Will shook his head and let him go.

There was a crash behind him, and he twisted to see Nico collapse.

"I'm sorry... so... tire..."

He was looking slightly transparent around the edges.

 _"Shoot!_ Nico! I'm sorry, I should have asked before I used your power-" he was about to run to the Italian, when a panicked cry from the entrance stopped him.

"Will! _Do_ something!"

Thalia appeared in the doorway, her face wild, Annabeth in her arms.

A dagger was poking from the blond girl's stomach, and blood was staining her torn orange shirt.

"Annabeth!"

 **A/N Hiya guys! Please feel free to fall of this cliff that I've carelessly left here..** ** _._**

 **But seriously, thanks guys.**

 **Review please!**

 **~Fi**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Okay so today is a double update day. It just is, for some reason.**

 **I'm not sure what to think. You guys really seem to think I'd kill Annabeth... so maybe I should! *Dodges knives* Kidding! I'm kidding! I wouldn't break up Percabeth. Not in this Fic anyway... :-P**

 **Thanks for the reviews guys, it means so much to me that you take the time to write one!**

"Annabeth!"

The blond girl gasped for breath as Thalia placed her gently onto an empty pallet.

"Will! Snap out of it, and do something!"

Will gaped at her. This was proof that he was still dreaming. This sort of thing happened to other people- it didn't happen to _Annabeth._ Annabeth was one of the constants in camp, one of the people who made it home, one of the things that never changed. She couldn't be dying now. She couldn-

Thalia slapped him hard across the face. It hurt- she'd chosen the side with the black eye.

He gaped at her. "Th- Th- Annabeth- Wha-"

She slapped him again, in the same place. Tears glistened in her eyes.

"You snap out of it right now, William Solace! Snap out of it and _heal_ her! If you let her die, I'll- I'll-" They spilled over her cheeks, carving glistening paths over the silvery skin. "Annabeth is my oldest friend! I've already lost Luke, and- and Zoë, and if you let her-"

Will found his voice. "I won't! Let me see her..."

He trailed away, glancing at Nico's translucent form. Thalia raised her hand and he flinched. "Your boyfriend can wait! He's not dy- dying..." her voice broke.

Will almost protested that Nico and himself were not an item, and why did everyone seem to think that they were; a glance at her face told him that this was a bad time, however.

He bent over and examined the wound.

"I need a clean towel, some gauze, and bandages."

Thalia passed them to him with trembling figures.

He looked at her. "Go outside. I can do this. She'll be fine."

Thalia left, whiter than Nico usually was.

He started talking as he used the towel to apply pressure around the wound. "Annabeth? Can you hear me, Annabeth?"

"Mmn- P-Perce?" She whispered.

Will felt his heart contract. "Tell me about him. Tell me about Percy, Annabeth."

Haltingly, slowly, she started talking. She wasn't talking to him, though. Between gasping breaths, she told the air around them about how Percy had kept her sane through Tartarus; how he was always there for her; how much she loved him. When she gasped, "And here- here we are again, Sea- seaweed brain. I took -took the knife for y- you again, Sea-seaweed b-brain...", Will recalled that time during the Titan war that she had jumped in front of Percy and took a poisoned blade to save his life. He hoped that that wasn't where this wound came from, but knew in his heart that it was.

As he slowly removed the knife, he sang a hymn to his father, praying for his help. Annabeth's breathing grew more laboured; he sang louder and louder. He was sure her skin was glowing a faint gold, but that may have been his own exhausted state.

When he got the blade clear of her skin, however, he saw that he was wrong. A bright light, like a miniature sun, shone from the wound, and then it closed up completely, leaving only a small scar.

His song had worked.

Annabeth's breathing grew steady, and she drifted off to sleep.

Will sat back, drained. Then a hand grasped his shoulder. "You did it."

Nico.

He spun around to start apologising, but Nico cut him off. "No, you did the right thing. I'm fine, but if you had gone to help me, she would have died. You saved her life, Will."

He smiled wanley.

Will, however, set his jaw. "This has to stop."

"I know it does, Sunshine. I know."

He didn't understand. "No. I mean, this has to stop, now."

Nico looked at him. "How will you manage that? You can't do anything about it."

Will glared at him. "How many have died, Nico? How many?"

Nico bowed his head. "Four."

"Four dead, Nico. How many more will die if this keeps going? How many more will die over a petty squabble?"

Now Nico looked angry. "It's not a petty-"

"I know what they did to me, Nico. They did it to me, after all!" His voice was getting louder; he would be shouting soon. "Don't you think _I_ should be the one to decide on what happens to me? Don't _I_ get a say in my life?"

Nico looked slightly afraid. "Of course, Will. I just wanted to protect you..." he whispered.

Will sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you, Nico."

Nico just nodded.

"I _have_ to stop this. I am going to go out and stop this. And _you_ aren't coming: you're dead on your feet."

"Will, you-"

But Will's blue eyes held a steely glint, and Nico stopped talking.

"Four people are _dead,_ Nico."

Nico flinched. "Six. Don't be one of them."

"I won't. I'll end this."

He ruffled the other boy's hair, then stood up to leave.

Nico watched him go from the shadows, then flinched again. _"Seven."_

 **A/N I'll tell you who died in a later chapter...**

 **I didn't kill Annabeth though! That's the important bit, right? :-D**

 **Reviews mean everything! Please leave one!**

 **As always, hope you enjoyed it!**

 **~Fi**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N I almost didn't write a chapter today... but here it is! :-D**

A faint trace of sulphur lingered over the battleground as Will ran to the break in the line of pointed spikes.

He say Thalia fighting alongside another silver skinned huntress. As he watched, they slammed the hilts of their daggers into each side of their enemy's helmet; he slumped over, unconscious.

Will ran on.

He watched Percy and Jason summon a small hurricane that whirled around the opposing side, sending weapons, bushes, and campers alike flying. Percy's face was grimy, with two clear paths down his cheeks: tear tracks. Will realised he hadn't told anyone about healing Annabeth- Percy probably thought she she was dying or already dead. There was no time to correct him now. Jason's lips moved quickly; was he praying to his father, or trying to comfort Percy?

They didn't see Will, and he ran on.

Then he watched as Kayla shot a blunted arrow at an oncoming Até kid, and the boy sat down abruptly. He saw her lower her bow. Unfortunately, she saw him too.

"WILL! GET BACK IN THE TENT RIGHT NOW!"

Will stopped running and tried to explain. "No, Kayla. I'm going to stop this, and stop this now. I'm going to-"

She marched towards him. "William Solace, get-back-to-the-infirmary-now-or-so-help-me-Zeus-Apollo-and-Artemis-I-will-drag-you-by-your-hair!" She said this in one breath, at the same time firing a stink arrow into a small group of Eris and Enyo fighters.

 _"NO,_ Kayla! I'm going to go and-"

Kayla grabbed his hair and started walking. "No arg-"

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted. Looking around confusedly, Will noticed Clovis sleeping next to a tree not far off. The boy was emitting a strong feeling of sleepiness, and he would have loved nothing more than to lie down too...

He shook himself and ran on.

When he finally reached the centre of the battle field, he stopped. "Listen!"

Nothing.

"Listen to me!" He cried.

Everyone ignored him.

 _I wish Leo was still here_ , he thought. He liked the mischievous Latino boy, and missed him. They had become friends in the six months he had spent building the Argo II. _He could probably make me a megaphone... or Piper. She could make people listen to me..._

He cleared his throat and shouted at the top of his voice.

"STOP!.!.!"

Everyone stopped. (Except for small explosion in the distance.) They all turned to look at him.

His cheek stung where Thalia had hit him, and his ankle burned. His eye was still puffy. But he spoke strongly.

"What are we doing here?" His voice carried clearly across the field. "We are fighting over _nothing;_ a petty argument. We are wasting time, energy, and blood." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone move. "More than five people have died because we could not talk things over. This ends _now."_

Silence. Then someone shouted. "But what about making them pay?" He couldn't tell where the voice came from.

"The Romans have a court system. We should do something similar. We can get Chiron, Reyna, and Dakota to judge for us: they will be impartial. Put down your weapons."

He could have been using charmspeak himself, he reflected, as campers and satyrs alike threw bows and spears to the ground, exchanging guilty looks and, in a few places, already shaking hands and hugging those they had been fighting seconds before. (The hunters also sheathed their weapons, but reluctantly.)

Will smiled. "We don't need to fight one another-"

Something jerked in the corner if his eye and he whipped his head around to see a girl kneeling by a bow, an arrow just leaving the strings. An arrow aiming for him.

 _Darla._

At once, the Nemesis girl vanished under a crowd of angry people, Apollo and her own cabin alike, all furiously realising the real reason for their fight in that moment.

Will could not move.

The arrow lunged closer. It was almost beautiful, really. The setting sun behind him glinted off of broken wheel shaped fetching, and the head was sharp enough to cut through ice.

It was coming closer.

The closer it came, the slower time seemed to go.

It had almost passed the point where his shadow stopped and the light started again.

Then something flashed before him. His shadow seemed to rise up before his eyes.

He only realised what had happened, however, when the arrow embedded itself in Nico's chest and the pale boy fell back on to Will.

 **A/N Ah ha ha ha *laughs nervously* PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!**

 **I was thinking about the reviews I got that commented on how I've seriously wounded at least two important characters so far... I reckon I just like Will being thrown from crisis to crisis. Or maybe I'm just a sadist. You guys take your pick.**

 **Reviews would be appreciated... or I might just end the thing there...**

 **:-P**

 **~Fi**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N I will put a few planks under your metaphorical feet in this chapter, but you will still be liable to fall of the cliff at any moment!**

 **But anyway, this is me writing a mildly depressing chapter.**

Will's throat seemed to dry out. He could not scream, nor cry for help. Al he could do was stare at the boy in his arms as he fought for breath, an arrow buried in his lower chest.

Nico had saved his life.

 _And Nico was dying because of it._

People were moving around, tying up Darla and her followers, but he barely noticed them, intent as he was on Nico's pale face. Something wet splashed into the boy's hair, and he realised that tears were pouring down his face.

"Why did you do that?" He asked, brokenly. "You little fool. Why did you-?" His tears checked him.

"Had to-" Nico wheezed, then fell silent.

Someone was pulling on his sleeves. Two someones. Isla and Arla pointed towards the white building in the distance, and his brain jolted back to life. _The infirmary._

Gathering the dying boy, bridal style, in his arms, he stood up and began to run.

XxX

His vision still blurred, Will paced around the sterile white room.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

The arrow that had, half an hour before, been sunk into Nico's lung was the only thing on the table nearby. Its tip and a third of the shaft were encrusted in dried blood.

Five paces left. Turn. Five paces right.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

A row of surgical blades lined the sink; some gleaming, some tainted with more blood. They sparkled in the fluorescent light cast from above.

Five paces. Turn. Five paces.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

A glass on the sideboard was full to the brim of a translucent, golden liquid. A green straw and umbrella adorned the rim, and a few cubes of ice floated in it.

Pace. Pace. Pace.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

The boy lying on the bed was pale and gaunt. His chest rose and fell so faintly, at a glance it seemed not to move at all. A bandage wrapped around his torso, and an IV cord connected him to a bag of the same golden liquid. His dark hair fell limply over closed eyes.

Five left. Turn. Five right.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

 _Sigh_.

Will stopped pacing with difficulty and sat on the bed beside the prone form.

"Wake up, Nico." His cheeks had dried whilst he worked on the boy's wound, but now they were damp once more. "You saved my life. Wake up, Death Boy."

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Please, wake up, please."

Nico did not move. His mouth stayed closed, his fingers stayed limp.

In a sudden burst of rage, Will surged up from beside him and lunged at the arrow that had caused this pain.

It made a sharp retort as it snapped in two.

No reaction from the boy on the bed.

He flung the pieces into a corner and resumed pacing.

 _Wake up, Nico. Wake up, Nico._

It became a mantra to him. With every step he took, he repeated it over again, until he almost believed that Nico would sit up at the end of his pacing.

He did not.

"Why won't you sit up, Nico? Open your eyes and make some sarcastic comment and- and-" He broke down.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep_ , replied the heart monitor.

Will was struck with a sudden sense of deja vú; was this not exactly what Nico had done for him when he had been unconscious in that cave? Was this how Nico had felt?

If it was, Will swore that he would make it up to the other boy as soon as he woke up.

 _If ever_ , a small, traitorous part of his brain said.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

XxX

Over the next three days, Will only left Nico's side to go to the bathroom. Of what Kayla and the twins brought him, he drank little and are less. He did not sleep.

Sometimes, he spent his time talking to the comatose boy; begging him to awaken, babbling aimlessly about trivial things.

At others, he strode angrily up and down the tiny room, swearing under his breath and growling at the walls.

Sometimes, he simply knelt by the other and wept.

The worst times, however, were when he would sit, motionless, staring blankly at the opposite wall; unresponsive to anything his siblings tried. For hours at a time he became almost comatose himself- except for his steady blinking; the strength of his heart beat; the rhymical rush of air in and out of his lungs.

Those were the times when he allowed himself to think about what would happen if Nico did not wake up at all.

Those were the times he wondered what would happen if Nico died.

Maybe he'd die, too.

 **A/N Sorry about that guys! Actually, I'm not at all. Anyyyway...**

 **If you are cursing my name right now, take heart! I have included a small (read, teensy tiny) hint in the above text.**

 **Thanks to Silver Huntress of Artemis,,TheLittleDeformedOne, RainbowSpark18, TheLazyWhiteCat, and all the guests who reviewed that last chapter! Thanks, guys!**

 **I will continue this tomorrow, probably...**

 **In the meantime, (yup, you guessed it) please review me!**

 **Skull cookies to all of you! (34 DAYS til Halloween!)**

 **~Fi**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N Thanks for being great, everyone! I can see my reviews again, so I'll try and answer them...**

 **Here it is!**

On the evening of the third day, Darla's trial was held.

Frank the great snipe (A **/N I Google searched the fastest bird over long distance. It can go up to 60 mph! ... *ahem*** ) had been despatched to Camp Jupiter the moment the battle had ended, and had returned with Reyna, Rachel, Gwen, and Dakota. The four judges (and Frank) had arrived by pegasus, and immediately been rushed into the rec room of the big house.

It had been specially renovated for the occasion. A team of Hephaestus kids, with Nyssa at the head, had spent every spare moment since the battle tinkering around, and, at long last, had produced... A small red button with a judge's gavel engraved upon it.

Actually, Nyssa has explained to the perplexed crowd, it was what happened when you pressed the button that was important. When lightly depressed by a dubious Jason, the arcade games rotated and became wooden benches. The table flipped over and became the accused's podium. At the far end of the room, an area for the judge's to sit and... judge rose out of the floor.

The rec room became a court room at the push of a button.

Predictably, Percy became completely obsessed with the button, and it was a further 20 minutes before Annabeth (now fully healed) could persuade him to take his seat.

The panel of judges consisted of Chiron, Reyna, Gwen, Dakota, and Rachel (who spent the entire time doodling in a sheet of paper as well as paying possibly more attention than any of the others); the jury contained the heads of all the cabins, plus a few extra, and some satyrs.

The trial was quite short.

Will was called on to testify, and spent a slow quarter of an hour answering questions before the final verdict. Then he went straight back to Nico's side.

XxX

"Darla was pretty much silent all the way through. Nemesis stands for trials and justice as well as revenge... I think she must have respected what was going on. I didn't expect her to take things lying down, though. Did you?"

As usual, Nico did not respond. Will was sitting in a squishy, orange armchair that Isla had found in a storeroom, and persuaded Arla to help her carry it in. Will had told Nico, several times, that it was probably full of dust and harmful germs; he could not summon the energy to remove it.

"Well, she did," Will continued. "It was a guilty verdict."

He sat back for a moment, then a flicker of shock crossed his face.

"Oh, no! Not the death penalty, Nico. We couldn't to that unless it was life or death in battle- never as a punishment!" He shook his head vehemently. Nico, however, remained still.

"After a short discussion, Chiron announced that she should be banished. Reyna then added that she could only return if she made it to Athens- the original Athens- and knelt before the place the alter once stood.

Dakota said that, once she left, any demigod who met her was banned from acknowledging her quest or aiding her.

Gwen said that she could stay here for a few days longer to gather food and supplies, and then say her goodbyes. She also said that the demigod she met would be allowed to give her food and medical care if her need was great. I think they're being to kind to her. After what she did to you, she should never be allowed to return here..."

He paused and frowned.

"Oh, yes. Rachel finished with the fact that the Hephaestus and Hecate cabins would create a tracking/monitoring device to make sure that she does get to Athens, and doesn't cheat. They're working on that now..."

He ran one hand over the sleeping boy's face; starting up at his temple and finishing just to the left of and above his chin. He stayed silent for a time, and when he spoke again, his voice was a whisper.

"They decided to drop all charges against you- the ones that say that you could and should have prevented the Roman-Greek war in the first place- because you saved both camps so many times." He sniffed.

"You can wake up now and no-one will say anything about it! You're a hero, Death Boy!" The pale Italian did not move a muscle. "Nico please! Please wake up for me. P-please..."

His voice trailed away as tears began rolling down his face again. They overflowed from his dull blue eyes and dripped off the end of his nose, landing on the bandaged chest of the boy before him.

"Come on, Nico! Open those stupid eyes! Nico!"

He reached up and dashed the tears from his cheek with a trembling hand, then laid it back down on the covers beside Nico's white one.

Which moved to cover his.

"W-Will? I didn't want you to die, too..." Nico's voice was scratchy and weak from lack of use.

His dark eyes were trained on Will's tear stained face.

"Nico!"

Will flung his arms around the thinner boy and hugged him tightly. "Oh gods, Nico! You're awake- you're alive!"

Nico patted his back in confusion. "What are you talking about? I died! And you're hurting..."

"Sorry! Sorry, sorry..."

Will released the other boy, who felt his ribs and seemed surprised to find them bound. "What do you mean?! You're not dead! You've finally woken up!"

Will beamed as he tried to hand Nico a glass of Nectar, but Nico refused to take it.

"Will, I know what an arrow to the chest means. Why are you-"

Will burst into tears again.

"Woah, woah! Don't cry, Will!" Nico sounded worried and shocked.

"You- you're not dead, Nico! The arrow didn't kill y-you! I saved your life and we're gonna live forever a-and ever..."

Nico looked impressed, but still worried. "So, if I'm not dead... where am I?"

He patted the bed beside him, and Will sat down. As he dried his eyes (again), he explained.

"You almost -died. But we got you here in time and- and-"

His throat clenched. _What if, when he told Nico everything, this turned out to be a dream?_

But Nico spoke. "Wait... when I said your name, you started babbling about how I've... 'woken up'. How long have I even here, Will?"

He stared into Will's eyes, and Will could not look away.

"Eighty-one hours, and thirty-seven minutes... I was starting to think you'd left me..."

Nico shook his head. "Eighty- three and a half days?!" He yelped.

"Yes, and maybe now _you're_ awake we can get Will to sleep," said Kayla from the open doorway. She grinned. "Welcome back, Nico."

"Thanks." Then Nico looked searching at Will. "What did she mean by that, Will?"

Will looked at his scuffed trainers, embarrassed.

"I _meant,_ he's barely left your side since Darla shot you. Now, go, Will. I'll monitor Nico for twelve hours."

She raised her hand to cut off his protests. "No. William Solace, you are going to go to your cabin, and you are not coming back here until eight this evening. Go! Shoo!"

She glared at him, and he stood up and trailed out of the room. He stumbled a few times, until Kayla took pity on him and called Mike to help him reach cabin 7 without collapsing.

He was out the second his head touched his pillow.

XxX

Drew watched him enter his cabin from a red and white checked rug in the centre of the open spaces by the cabins, Lacy at her side. As expected, Lacy dropped her queen with a squeal when she saw Will.

"Drew! Will's left the infirmary! That means Nico's woken up!" Drew rolled her eyes, even though she'd just thought the exact same thing. Clarisse, who was watching the fallen piece of wood with interest, did nothing.

Just to say something, Drew responded with a dark smile. "Or... Nico died. And now Will is going to mourn him forever and never date any one else again. Or commit suicide to be with Nico. Either of the two; they're both romantic enough for me."

Lacy picked up her piece again and aimed a swipe at her. "Don't say that! It's much more romantic if Nico wakes up! Also, everyone here would be _really_ upset if he did die..."

Clarisse scoffed. "Speak for yourself," she said gruffly. Then, "Are you going to take your move or not?"

"You can't mean that! I know how worried you were about him," Lacy replied. "And yes." She placed the queen onto a black square, knocking a knight to the side. Clarisse did not hesitate. Moving her other knight abruptly, she said, "Checkmate. I win, again."

Drew chuckled at the stunned look on Lacy's face, then returned her attention to the Apollo cabin.

When Clarisse started returning the pieces to their start positions for another game, she stood up to go.

She was going to find out what had happened to Nico, then tell everyone she could find.

 **A/N Ta daaa! What do you think?**

 **Also, how many of you spotted that I used the same dialogue when Will was waiting for Nico to wake up, as I used when Nico was waiting for Will to wake up... only switching the names over, obviously.**

 **Thanks to all my reviewers!**

 **This will be continued!**

 **I love being reviewed, so...**

 **Thanks all!**

 **~Fi**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N Longest chapter yet! Also, the last in this story arc (explanation at the bottom).**

 **Thanks for the reviews, so much!**

 **Everyone who reviewed gets bat cookies!**

"I don't want to do it, Will!"

Will grabbed the pale boy's hand and started dragging him towards the gathering of people at the edge of the pier. "Well, you're going to!"

Nico yanked his hand away and crossed his arms, trying to avoid Will's eyes. "I just got out of the infirmary this morning! I don't want to do it and you can't make me!"

He shook his head childishly.

"But Nico," Will pleaded, "you're the only one that knows how to manage these ceremonies properly! And if you don't do it," his face darkened, "then Darla gets to stay here until you do."

Flinging his hands up by his head in defeat, Nico grudgingly agreed to come and oversee the funeral.

It was a grand occasion. The whole camp turned up to morn, along with a group of satyrs and dryads. Six campers had died-and one dryad when a faulty automaton exploded by her tree- and three quarters of the party ended up in tears, including the entire Aphrodite cabin and most of the Hecate cabin.

Will did not cry. He did not feel like he had tears left in him- they had all been used up as he waited for Nico.

Nico almost cried. But he was running it, so tried his hardest not to.

Eventually, six rafts were launched into the sea; a shrouded body on each. Cecil from Hermes; Adara from Até; Philipp from Hecate; Gloria from Nike (she wasn't even fighting: she got in the way of a badly thrown spear); Edwin from Pheme; and Christina from Ares; all of them dead due to one petty argument.

Once the rafts were about the length of a swimming pool away, a group of archers from Apollo sent a flurry of arrows towards them. Mid flight, the arrows caught fire; and when the connected with the floating pyres, they exploded into flame in the early morning light. The flame on each raft was a different colour, on regard to the main colour of the victim's cabin.

Though beautiful, it was a strangely eerie sight, and Will was glad to walk away when the rafts finally sank.

XxX

Very few people arrived to say goodbye to Darla. A sphere, about half the size of basketball, floated just behind her- the monitoring device- and a large rucksack, with the broken wheel of Nemisis embroidered upon it, weighed heavily on her back.

 _Does what she did weigh as heavily on her heart_? Will wondered.

He and Nico stood back from the proceedings and watched from a distance. Neither of them wanted to look at her, much less speak to her, and she did not try to catch their eye.

Will did not think that she was sorry.

Darla touched Thalia's tree, then stepped over the border into the mortal world and walked away. She did not look back once.

XxX

The beach was empty of people, most of whom were probably eating at the pavilion.

Will didn't eat.

"Are you alright, Sunshine?"

He glanced at Nico, who was sitting next to him on the white sand. "Hmm?"

"Well, you haven't eaten anything, and you haven't told me to eat either, even though I only came out of a coma 28 hours ago..."

Will smiled. "I'm fine..."

Nico grasped his shoulders and forced him to meet his dark eyes. "Kayla told me. She said you didn't eat or sleep, that you didn't even drink whilst you waited for me."

Will tried to look away, but Nico held him firmly.

"She said that there were times when they worried that you were just going to... give up." His voice dropped towards the end. "Why did she say that, Will?"

Will stopped squirming but still tried to avoid his eyes. His voice was quiet. "I guess... because it's true. If you hadn't made it -I don't know... I guess I just realised how much you meant to me then."

He finally looked up, to find Nico's eyes sympathetic.

"Of course I came back to you, Sunshine. Because... because you mean that much to me."

Will smiled, and looked straight at the Italian.

"You know, this is an open space. Nothing restricting us."

Nico cottoned on at once. "And there are no people here."

"No shadows for you to vanish into."

"No dryads for you to go for instead."

"No doors, so no one will barge in on us."

"Neither of us are bruised or injured at all."

They moved almost simultaneously; Will only slightly behind. Nico cupped Will's chin in one hand.

"No interruptions," he murmured, and brought his face right up close to Will's.

Will tilted his head to the side, and moved his mouth to Nico's, then-

"INCOMIIING!"

They sprang apart, both crimson, and looked around for the source of the disturbance. Both were ready to wreak havoc upon whoever it was that had interrupted their moment.

But there was no-one on the beach. There was no-one in the sea, either. Will thought he saw a movement in the trees, but when he looked closer, there was nothing there either. Then the voice came again.

"UH-OH! LOOK OUT BELOW!"

They both looked up at the sky, just as a second voice, this one female, shouted something back.

"YOU MEAN YOU LOST CONTROL?"

A small speck blunted over head. A small, browny-orangey speck that was getting steadily larger...

"I DID _NOT_ LOOSE CONTROL, SUNSHINE! IT'S JUST A MALFUNCTION!"

Nico glanced at Will in confusion, and Will shook his head. A small knot of campers had emerged from the trees to stare at the metal speck in the sky.

"JUST A MALFUNCTION THAT'S GONNA KILL US!"

"WE'LL BE FINE! WE'LL JUST-"

Will was just thinking that being crushed by a giant metal dragon falling from the sky was a pretty rubbish way to die, especially after all that he and Nico had just been through, when a cage of bones snappily assembled itself around him. He glanced gratefully at the other boy as the cage kept one of the dragon's forelegs from crushing them both.

Two pairs of feet jumped off the monster, and their discussion continued. They seemed unaware that anyone had been squashed.

"See! I _said_ we'd be fine!"

"Oh, you're impossible!"

"That's why you love me. It's what I do best, after a-"

"LEEOOOOO!"

A third pair of feet leapt at the first one, then hovered a few inches off the ground.

"Leo Valdez, how could you do that to us? We thought you were dead!" Piper's voice was clearly audible through the chunks of metal surrounding them.

The feet hit the floor again, and there was a slapping noise.

 _"Ow,_ Pipes!"

The second voice chuckled, and Piper asked, "And who is the unlucky lady that had to crash land with him?"

"Me? Oh! I'm Calypso- I'm his girlfriend."

Then Leo and Calypso were swamped with people.

Will chuckled and glanced over at Nico, who looked just as amused. Then a subtle crack made him look up. One of the bones keeping them from being crushed had a large fracture running through it- a fracture that was getting slowly larger.

"We gotta- Nico, can you shadow travel us out of here?"

Nico thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Too little energy. Sorry."

Will snorted. "Right. Neither of us is _ever_ skipping lunch again."

The exited babbling drifting through the gaps in the metal came to a temporary lull, and Will took this as an opportunity.

"Guys?! A little help here?"

A small pause- then the talking started again.

Will glanced at Nico. He felt the other boy draw breath into his lungs, and realised that he was sitting in his lap.

 _When had that happened?_

There wasn't room to move away. They shouted together this time.

"Hey! HELP US!"

There was a sudden silence, the someone gasped.

"Oh! Will and Nico are still under there!" Annabeth sounded half amused and half shocked. "Leo..." another slapping sound.

 _"Ow!_ Yes?"

"That was for scaring us. Now, can you move that lump of metal before it squashes them?"

"One, don't be rude to Festus. Two, how close together were they that we squashed them _both?_ And _three,_ sure."

The first pair of feet walked back towards the dragon, and there was the squeaking of gears and the clicking of bolts. A shudder ran through the metal, causing the broken bone to splinter and buckle-

Then the dragon moved and collapsed three metres to their left. The cage returned to dust.

They were met with Leo's grinning face. He looked over the two of them, Will still in Nico's lap, and raised an eyebrow.

Will felt the blood rush back to his face and stood up quickly, then put out a hand to pull Nico up.

Leo smirked, a playful smile on his face. "I'd ask what you were doing, but..."

A lightly tanned girl with amber hair slapped his arm, though gently. "Leave them alone, Leo. I'm hungry... we've been flying for twelve hours since we left Africa," the word sounded unfamiliar on her tongue. "Where we also crashed, by the way," this was for the crowd's benefit, "and all I've had to eat was half a slice of 'chocolate cake'..."

Leo blushed, then grabbed her arm and started walking in the direction of the pavilion. "I'm sorry, Sunshine. Let's get some food..."

Most of the other campers followed them, leaving Will bad Nico with the perfect distraction in which to slip off into the woods.

"Now, do you think anything will happen if we try to kiss again?" Will smiled.

Nico pretended to consider it. "Well, there's always the possibility of the forest catching fire. Or else the gods themselves will choose this moment to pay a visit..."

They both chuckled, and Will bent his head slightly. Nico tilted his upwards, and their lips met.

Neither boy vanished, neither turned into a dryad. The forest did not catch fire. The gods did not descend.

 _Yes_ , thought Will, _this is where I want to be._

XxX

As their kiss deepened, Annabeth held out her hand to Clarisse, the only two who had stayed behind (Annabeth had told Percy that he owed Calypso an apology, so he had gone to give her one), who grudgingly handed over three gold drachma.

"I'm never betting against you again, Wise Girl," she grumbled.

Annabeth smiled. "You just didn't watch carefully enough. This has been coming for a long time."

Clarisse grinned too, and both girls wandered back to the rest of the crowd.

XxX

Will broke off the kiss and grinned down at his boyfriend (he'd waited so long to say that). Nico looked a little worried, and bit his lip, so Will spoke up.

"No, Nico. It's plain as anyone can see..."

Nico grinned too, and finished for him.

"We're simply meant to be."

 **A/N Okay, so sue me. I quoted The Nightmare Before Christmas. Hey, it's one of my favourites, and if you haven't seen it then you should. Anyway.**

 **The whole arrow to the chest, then thinks they're dead thing comes from a series called the Belgariad by David Eddings...**

 **I want to know your opinions: I have more ideas for this, do should I keep going on this story, or create a sequel? I prefer the first option, but you might not...**

 **I've been planning the beach scene for quite a while...that's why the chapter is so long.**

 **I'm gonna try to change the name, too.**

 **Please review me, guys! Thanks so much!**

 **And here is the kiss you wanted, Silver Huntress Of Artemis. This is why I wouldn't let them kiss before.**

 **Bye for now!**

 **~Fi**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N This is pretty much just a filler chapter/ start of mini arc whilst I try and piece together my ideas for the main arc.**

 **Everything has flipped to Nico's perspective, just to say.**

Nico yawned, sat up, and stretched. A click of his fingers brought the skeletal hands on either side of each window to life; they pulled back the curtains to allow the sun to shine weakly in through the glass.

A glance at the tapestry of a man in a pot of boiling oil told him that it was just after six (the man rotated around the edge of the pot, much like the hour hand on a clock): much to early for anyone sane to be awake.

He climbed out of the queen size bed and went to the window to watch the sunrise. He was finding that he enjoyed watching the sunrise much more than he used to-do ever since last Thursday...

He blushed slightly at the memory. Then he felt irritated at himself for blushing. He blamed Will for it, of course. If Will didn't keep forcing him to eat breakfast as well as lunch and dinner, he could go on not-blushing the way he used to...

 _But maybe blushing was a fair price to pay for Will's affections..._

 _I can't believe I just thought that,_ he thought.

He watched as a figure (he pretended he did not know that it was Will, but he did, really) left the Apollo cabin and walked towards the infirmary.

Morning shift.

Pulling on a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt with 'Wouldn't you like to see something strange?' and a picture of Zero on, and a new aviator jacket, he pushed open his door and stepped outside.

A barrel of bright pink paint fell straight down on top of him, drenching him in a hideously fluorescent shade, and ruining his jacket. From somewhere to his left came the sound of heavily stifled laughter.

"STOLLS!"

XxX

Three hours later, Nico sat picking at a golden pastry in the infirmary, watching his boyfriend patch up the Stoll brothers.

"You gotta stop doing this, Nico. It wasn't a fair fight."

"Fou're felling me!" Added Connor, his split lip preventing him from speaking properly.

"It was two against one, Sunshine, and I didn't hurt them much- they're still walking, aren't they?"

It was true. The brothers did only have a few very minor injuries, and were probably already planning their next trick.

"You're fine. Shoo."

Will turned to look at Nico as the brothers vanished around the door.

"You still have some paint in your hair... no, not there, left a bit... oh, let me get it!"

He advanced and started bucking flakes of dried paint from Nico's dark head.

"Thanks, Sunshine. At least they didn't dye it properly like they did with Aprodite... Drew's hair is still slightly blue."

Will did not seem to be listening. "Mhmm, I've been thinking about that."

Nico choked. "You've been thinking about dying my hair blue?!"

The blond drew back, surprised. "No, of course not! I've been thinking about Sunshine, Death Boy."

"You've been thinking about... The sunshine? Isn't your dad god of the sun? And also bad poetry?" He smirked.

Will ignored the slight. "No, dummy. I've been thinking about your nickname for me. Now that Leo and Calypso are here, there are two Sunshines. Every time Leo calls her that, I turn around thinking you're the one talking."

"You think I sound like Leo? We've gotta do something!"

Will chuckled this time. "No, Death Boy, I need a new nickname! So you have to think of one." He flicked at a last bit of paint. "All gone."

"Thank Zeus. I can't go around with pink hair- it looks really stupid." An idea accrued to him. "Say, do you think the Aphrodite cabin wants revenge? Cause we can team up, I bet they have pink hair dye..."

Will rolled his eyes. "My nickname?"

"I'm thinking about it, Solace. Now, I'm going to see if they want to ally against Hermes for capture the flag. See you at lunch?"

He made to throw his uneaten croissant in the bin, but Will caught his arm. "Not until you eat that, Death Boy."

 _Really?_ Nico thought, but he ate it anyway.

Will hugged him and dropped a kiss on his forehead, then rushed off to check on Marcus, who had fallen off a pegasus earlier that day.

 _A new nickname, eh? Curse you, Valdez, for taking my nickname for your own..._

The woods were a good place to think.

 **A/N Yes, that was a little plotless. But I need time to piece together my ideas! It's like building Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas- I have all the prices, but I still need to stitch them together... (that's where Nico's shirt comes from, BTW)**

 **If anyone has any ideas for the nickname or for something they might want to see, do tell!**

 **~Fi**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N 6 thousand plus views, guys! Thanks so much!**

 **Also, I wrote a few oneshots, if you wanna check them out...**

Unfortunately, the forest was also full of people. Apparently, Chiron had organised a whole camp treasure hunt for the anniversary of the end of the earth war, and even the Hypnos cabin had come to help. Will almost tripped over Clovis, who woke up a few seconds later with a cry of "Look under that rock!"

Then he fell asleep again.

Cheater.

Most of the other cabins were doing a similar thing, though. Aphrodite was trying to charmspeak the location of the treasure from some of the dryads, Hecate was using summoning charms, and the fifth legion had employed a few bloodhounds to find it for them.

 _Wait, the fifth legion?_

Looking around more closely, Nico could clearly see several members of the Roman army; he guessed they'd all come to celebrate too.

Which was great and everything, but didn't give him the opportunity the think about the dilemma in hand. Namely, Will's insistence on a new nickname.

 _I could always just find Leo and make_ him _get a new nickname instead..._

He pictured the look on Will's face if be ever found out that he'd done that.

After turning past yet another tree and walking into yet another group of campers, Nico decided to go somewhere else.

This time, he turned and struck out in one specific direction, towards the edge of the woods.

He passed Frank, trying to persuade Hazel to use her powers to find the treasure. She laughed and told him that it would be a) cheating, and b) she didn't think it would be treasure like that...

Frank sighed, turned back into a hellhound, and carried on sniffing.

He saw a green haired Katie (where were the Stolls getting all this stuff anyway?) chasing Travis, her face furious. Nico leaned against a tree and ever so causally stuck out one foot.

 _"Not_ cool, man!" Travis complained as he picked himself up off the floor. He looked up, saw who had tripped him, and ran on - but Katie had caught up. She yelled at him for a few minutes, then gathered him up in her arms and kissed him. Nico felt his face go red.

 _If I'd have known that was all she was going to so, I wouldn't have bothered..._

A few metres down the path, he came across Connor and Lacy. Definitely not treasure hunting.

He made a mental note not to tell Lacy about his revenge plans.

When he finally reached the edge of the woods, it took him a further ten minutes of walking to find the cave. He could have shadow-travelled, but time wasn't really an issue.

As much as he hated this cave, it being the place Darla had cornered Will, he could not deny that it was the perfect place to think- out of the way, and set deep into the rock. The walls were spaced apart, so it didn't trigger his claustrophobic-ness.

On the other hand, there was now a large chest set in the centre.

 _Typical._

Against his better judgement, he went to open it. He was half hoping that it was another prank from the Stolls, but, upon opening it, found that it wasn't.

 _Oh, this is brilliant,_ he thought, running a hand through his shortened hair (Will had preferred it long, but he found that it got in his eyes like that). _The entirety of both camps are searching for a box that Chiron happened to put in_ my _cave. Great._

The box contained a few laurel wreaths; some drachma (Hazel had been wrong about that); a sheath which did not look like it would fit anything larger than a dagger in it; a helmet; and a small mountain of chocolate coins.

He slammed the lid and sat on the box, thinking.

A replacement for sunshine... He hoped Will wasn't expecting anything imaginative.

Then voices outside the cave caught his attention.

"Let's check in here!"

 _"Another_ cave, Leo? How do you _find_ all of these?"

"I told you, Sunshine, I didn't know there would be trolls in the one in China! Besides, this one's in camp. It'll be perfectly safe!"

"Leo," came another voice - Piper. That meant Jason would be there too. "That is the one way to make sure of a monster attack."

"Also," Annabeth, "monsters can be summoned into camp: the woods are kept well stocked."

"We ran into a hellhound less than fifteen minutes ago. Don't tell me you forgot already!" The voice he'd been dreading. Nico hadn't been trying to _avoid_ Percy, per se, but he definitely hadn't gone out of his way to talk to him. Most of the year had been easy due to Percy going back to collage in New York, but when he was in camp, he seemed to be everywhere.

"I can feel metal in there, and Frank says he can smell something."

"Yeah, but Hazel, that could just be an old sword or something... I don't really want to go in there."

"Come on, Sunshine, we'll protect you..."

"And there probably won't be anything in there..."

The eight voices started coming closer, and Nico made up his mind.

He didn't really want most of the 'treasure' (chocolate coins, though...), but he had found it first, so...

A snap of his fingers, and a few large, skeletal spiders rose out of the ground and scuttled towards the incoming group. He heard Calypso and Annabeth's screams, and felt a twinge of guilt; it was swallowed almost instantly by enjoyment.

As the first of the horde fell, he called upon some normal skeletons and robed them in shadow. They formed the second part of his defence. Then a half-rotted stygian bird, and a hellhound (not Mrs o'Leary) to finish off.

None of his creations would kill anyone, but they should make the cave impenetrable to anyone else.

As the spiders stared reassembling themselves, he felt a wave of exhaustion rush over him; he stumbled and sat on the box again.

"What's going on?" A new voice. And by the sound of it, almost the whole of the party behind it. He couldn't stand against _two_ camps for long.

Grabbing the box, he called a few final bones to the surface, then shadow-travelled to the top of the cliff above the cave.

He was right: the small clearing outside the cave was packed. He watched them struggle for a few more seconds, then travelled straight to his empty cabin and collapsed onto a chair.

He wondered what would happen when the others saw his message...

 **A/N If anyone hadn't figured it out, the eight voices were, respectively, Leo, Calypso, Leo, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, Calypso, Leo, and Jason. Frank was there, but didn't say anything. Not that it matters, but the other voice was Clarisse.**

 **So yeah, this is random fillers.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Also, HAPPY OCTOBER! FAVORITE MONTH!**

 **~F** i


	21. Chapter 21

Of course, he found out the answer to that all too soon.

After about an hour of staring at the elaborately carved box, he shoved it under the emerald bed and left the cabin. He would deal with the contents later.

He had been planning to walk over to the dining pavilion and see whether the others were back from defeating the monsters he'd called for them, but plans, especially ones made by demigods, change quickly.

A group consisting of a shaking Annabeth; a trembling Calypso; Percy, Jason, and Piper, all looking a little put out; Leo, Frank and Hazel dragging a struggling Clarisse; and Reyna approached down the path. Ducking into the bushes so as not to be seen, Nico watched them make their way over to the Big House.

He followed at a distance, but could still hear Clarisse's cries of "Let me go! I need to find whoever did this! And kill them!"

He decided not to follow them inside. They may not have twigged that he was behind the defences to the cave, but he guessed that if they stopped to think about it, even an idiot could add it up. He didn't want to be in the firing line when that happened.

So he took up a perch by the open window, where he could listen and not be seen.

"CHIRON! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Clarisse, I - _what?"_ He'd never heard Chiron at a loss for words before.

"Calm down, Clarisse. Well, we-"

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, HAZEL LEVESQUE! WE JUST WASTED OUR ENTIRE AFTERNOON LOOKING FOR AN EMPTY CAVE!"

He could hear Chiron's confusion. "Clarisse, please. I have absolutely no idea what you're talking-"

"Wait, so you didn't find a cave, fill it with monsters, and then leave a message instead of treasure?" Leo sounded thoughtful. It wasn't something he was good at.

"No, Leo, I did not. Annabeth, can you-"

"S-s-spiders," Annabeth whispered. He heard someone move, and assumed it was Percy.

"Can't you ask someone else, Chiron?" Yup, it was Percy. He sounded irritated.

"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED! WE FIGHT OUR WAY THROUGH A HORDE OF NEAR INVINCIBLE MONSTERS, ONLY TO FIND AN EMPTY CAVE WITH THE WORDS: 'NO TREASURE FOR YOU' WRITTEN ON THE FLOOR!"

"I don't-"

"There was a smiley face too, as I remember," interjected Leo.

"So we just wasted our whole afternoon for a message," put in Reyna.

The others started talking all at once, and for a few seconds Nico could not distinguish anything that was said. Then a banging noise - he imagined that Chiron was banging his hoof on the wooden floor.

"Silence! I will ask _one_ of you a question, and _one_ of you will answer it! _Hazel,_ where was the cave?"

Hazel described the location of the cave.

"And _Leo,_ you said that there was just a message saying, 'no treasure for you' written on the floor?"

"And a smiley face, yes."

 _"Frank,_ did you see how the message was written?"

"Uh, in something white, I think..."

"I- it was bone, Frank." Calypso's voice was quiet and trembling.

"And what type of monsters were they, _Jason, Reyna?_ Did you recognise them?"

Jason started speaking. "Well, first there were these giant spiders, and then some skeletons..."

Reyna finished for him. "A rotted stygian bird, and a hellhound."

"And was there anything special about these monsters?"

"Well... they kept reassembling themselves..."

"What do you mean by that, Calypso?"

"Well, they were all made of..."

"Bone," Annabeth finished for her.

There were a few seconds of silence as this sank in. Then-

"NICO DI ANGELO YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

"Clarisse, please, calm-"

"DON'T. TELL. ME. TO CALM. DOWN CHIRON! I HAD TO BABYSIT HYSTERICAL CAMPERS BECAUSE OF HIM!"

"I was _not_ hysterical, Clarisse!"

Leo spoke up, unhelpfully, "Yes, you were, Sunshine. And Annabeth definitely was."

"Thanks, Leo," the girls snapped.

Nico chuckled. It was a mistake.

"Percy?"

"Yes, Jason?"

"I think we have an evesdropper."

"That's what I -"

Their conversation was cut short by Clarisse's howl.

"ANGELO! COME HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!"

 _Not likely_ , Nico thought, and tried to shadow travel away.

He didn't have enough energy to do it properly, however, and landed just inside the room he was trying to get away from.

"Hi, guys," he waved weakly at the eight scowling faces before him.

Clarisse stepped towards him, followed by Reyna, Jason and Percy. Annabeth and Calypso stayed sitting, Annabeth shivering; and Hazel shook her head. He was on his own.

He turned and ran out of the Big House and into the sunny afternoon.

 _Soleggiato._ He almost chuckled at his brain's timing _._

So now he had a box of treasure under one of the beds in his cabin, a new nickname for his boyfriend, and a small crowd of angry campers (Clarisse, Reyna, Jason, and Percy had been joined by others who had also figured it out) trying to kill him.

 _Whoever said you should try something new every day,_ he thought, _should be fed to a hellhound._

 **A/N I love reviews.**

 **Also, I started a Jiper (sort of) fanfic. It's called Lightningstruck Dove, or something.**

 **As such, I may end up only updating every other day...**

 **Or not. Depends on how much time I have.**

 **~Fi**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N So I have begun to lay out my plot... but not until the end. Pay attention to the end, it's important.**

Nico ended up hiding in the Hephaestus cabin. Seeing as two entire camps were hunting him, he did not tell anyone this - he just hid there.

From the crashes outside, he guessed that they were trying to force entry to his cabin. He could tell that his burglar system worked by the simple face that no-one had managed to enter, which he knew by the absence of people searching other places.

The Hephaestus cabin was empty. He would have tried the Apollo cabin instead, but he had a feeling that that was the next place they'd check for him. Also, there might be people in there who hadn't joined in the treasure hunt. He did not think that Will would be at all sympathetic to his plight. It being self-caused, and all.

Several work tables, littered with shiny junk, filled the spaces that were not taken up by heavily modified, steampunk style beds. Very little of the original wooden walls could be seen under the grease stained blueprints pinned by everything from tape and blu-tack to daggers and chisels, and various sketches were mounted on the ceiling. The floor was covered in random piles of springs and cogs, which Nico navigated carefully.

A shadowy corner between the end of one bunk and a closet looked just large enough to slide into and still be able to watch out of the window. Cautiously stepping over one of the larger piles of spare parts - you never knew what malfunctioning machine you might run into in here - he edged his way over, keeping his head bowed in case someone looked through the window.

Everything was going great, until he trod on something spherical.

With a startled curse, he toppled over forwards. His other foot caught a carefully stacked tower of disks, and he watched in horror as the whole thing came crashing down into the centre of the room. It didn't stop there. It seemed that the residents of cabin 9 had planned for something like this; it was like watching a line of dominoes. As stack after stack of metal, wood, and plastic rained down around him, he crawled backwards into the corner he'd been aiming for.

"What was that?"

"He's hiding in our cabin!"

Then his elbow struck something, and the floor vanished from beneath him, just before the door swung open.

He landed painfully on his tailbone and sat there for a few seconds.

"What did he do?! He's messed up my -"

The square of light above him closed up, cutting off the voices and leaving him in the darkness. Not that that was a problem; he wasn't scared of the dark. (There wasn't anything _wrong_ with being scared of the dark.)

After a while, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He was in a straight walled cave - the walls looked like they'd been polished.

 _No way back that way, then._

He set off cautiously along the passage to his left.

He hadn't gone more than ten paces, however, when it thinned abruptly. He gulped. There was no way out the way he'd come, and he couldn't shadow travel his way out: he just didn't have the energy.

He tried to slow his breathing down, imagined Will standing next to him, telling him to... to...

He couldn't remember what Will told him to do.

And Will wasn't here to tell him to do it.

Instead of breathing more gently, he started hyperventilating. He couldn't help it. Trembling, he took another step along the passage. And another. A third, a fourth, a fifth followed.

Swallowing, he ran his tongue around his dry mouth and closed his eyes. His heart was beating too fast, and his breaths were coming in short, panicky gasps.

Squeezing his eyes right shut, he forced himself to move faster.

The sooner he reached a open space...

Instead of widening again, though, the passage got even thinner.

 _Some god is really having a field day today_ , a detached part of his brain thought.

He was starting to feel a little light headed now, and sweat was beading in his eyebrows.

He gave up trying to ignore his trembling limbs, trying to pretend that the oxygen wasn't going to run out on him, and collapsed through the shadows into one of the back rooms in the infirmary.

There was no-one there, thank Hades. He curled up into a ball and, hidden by a desk, tucked his head into his knees.

Then the door opened. "Hello?"

 _Great. Just what I need._

Will's golden thatch poked around the door. "Is there anyone in here? I thought I heard something..."

He took a few steps into the room, and Nico frantically tried to calm his breathing. He really didn't need Will to see him like this again. He wiped his face on a sleeve of his jacket; his eyes were damp.

He was still trembling when Will looked behind the desk.

"Nico."

"D-duh." He hated that tiny tremble in his voice. "I'm just sitting in here for a min-"

Will hugged him.

"Come on, count with me. 1, 2,"

"3, 4." _That_ was what he couldn't remember.

Only when his breathing was no longer being ripped from him in ragged gasps did Will let go.

"I said I was _fine..."_ He grumbled.

Will chuckled. "Actually, you didn't. Do you want to tell me why the camps are unified in trying to kill you?"

"Not really, no."

He ended up telling the blue-eyed boy everything, though. When he finished, Will shook his head.

"I hate to sound cold, but..."

"I deserved it, yeah," Nico muttered.

"And you know I'm gonna have to tell them where you are?"

"Why would you do _that?!"_

Will rolled his eyes, grabbed Nico's elbow, and marched him towards the white doors.

"But later -"

 _"After_ they've killed me, yes?"

"Yes. Then, we're gonna explore the caves together."

"You- what?"

Before he could make sense of this, Will had pushed him out of the infirmary into the afternoon sunlight.

"Here he is, guys!"

"Why did I agree to go out with you again, Soleggiato?"

"Because you love me. Also, was that a new nickname I heard?"

The crowd descended.

XxX

"I'm booorred!"

"You could watch their dramas for a while, my Lady?"

"I've tried that! _Nothing_ exiting is happening! Where's my son?"

"Which one, my Lady?"

"Which one- what do you mean, _which one_?"

"Oh, that one. Uh, I think he's still running around Italy, my Lady."

"Oh, that's useless..."

"My Lady?"

"I'm _still_ bored. _Ah!"_

"My Lady?"

"Beauty, be a dear and tell Hypnos that I wish to see him?"

"Certainly, my Lady."

 **A/N Ta daaaa! Was that an alright chapter? If you can guess who was talking in the last bit, I'll be kinda impressed...**

 **Nico will be fine, by the way. The camps won't actually** ** _kill_** **him...**

 **Also, I know next to nothing about claustrophobia, so if you think something needs changing, please drop me a line!**

 **Skull cookies to all! Only 28 DAYS 'til Halloween!**

 **~Fi**


	23. Chapter 23

"Why do you efen want to go down into the catacombfs anyway? There'ffs no light there!"

"So?"

"Will. You _hate_ the dark."

"But I want to see what the Hephaestus cabin is hiding. Also, they probably have some way of lighting it..."

"And thaf's another reafon why not to do it! They're going to kill me iff they ffee me near there - ow!"

"Sorry!" Will pulled the wad of tissue away from Nico's lip, and threw them into a metal basket nearby. "I think it's stopped bleeding... Annabeth really knows how to hit people, huh?"

Nico scowled balefully at him. "You're the one that gafe me to them..."

"Sorry." Will pushed his blond hair away from his eyes again.

"S' fine. They'd hafe found me anyway..."

They fell into silence. Will's siblings were at a canoeing class on the lake; Will had stayed behind. The Apollo cabin was quite nice, Nico reflected, if a little cramped.

He probed his lip with his tongue and gave a hiss of pain.

"Ofay. I'll take you down there. If you let me teahf you to sword fight." He'd been trying to teach Will this for ages; Will simply refused to learn. He usually just said that Nico could fight well enough for both of them.

He said something like that now.

"What if I'fe juft shadow-travelled and I'm unconfiouf?"

 _I won't always be here to protect you..._

 _And I hate not being able to pronounce 's' and 'v'. Thanks, Annabeth._

"Fine!" Will threw his tanned hands in the air as a gesture of defeat. "I'll learn to fight, you take me to the tunnels. Deal?"

"Deal."

Two identical heads poked around the door. They looked about eight years old, and had frizzy blond hair and blue eyes just like Will's.

 _Will's are brighter, though,_ Nico told himself.

They each had a tooth missing and were smiling great, gappy smiles.

"Will, and N-Nico -"

"-if you're here. Chiron -"

"-wants to see you -"

"-now."

It was kinda creepy the way they finished each others sentences, but Will just grinned.

 _He must be used to it..._

"Nico, this is Isla, and this is Arla. Say hello!"

Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm not complefely socially inepf, you know... Hello, twins."

Will chuckled and ruffled the girls' dandelion puff hair. "Sure, we're just coming."

The twins rushed off towards the stables, laughing.

"Well? Come on, Nico."

Will grabbed Nico's sleeve and pulled him towards the Big House.

"Why does he want us, Soleggiato?"

"You still haven't told me what that means."

Nico just shook his head.

When they reached the Big House, the door was unlocked. Chiron was sitting in the rec room, watching Seymour growl at one of the arcade machines.

"Sit down, sit down." He gestured at a pair of empty chairs, and they sat. Nico exchanged a glance with the other boy. Chiron seemed distracted.

Nico didn't speak. He didn't want to draw attention to his split lip, so Will spoke instead. "What's wrong?"

Chiron looked startled. "Nothing's _wrong!_ I just have a task for you to do, that's all."

"What is it?"

"Demigod pick up. There's one in New Orleans, but the Satyrs refuse to go there..."

Nico leaned forward excitedly. He hadn't left camp in a while (his brief trips too and from Australia two weeks ago didn't count; he'd been to exhausted and angry to pay attention to much), and was looking forward to leaving now.

With Will.

The blond seemed to be thinking along the sane lines. "When do we leave?"

"Now. Or rather, as soon as possible."

"Cool."

Will kept it together until they left the blue walled building, then he jumped up and down in the air. "We're leaving camp! We're leaving camp!"

"Calm down!"

 _He's like a child... but then, most denigods didn't leave camp very much..._

"No! Go and pack a bag, and I'll meet you by Thalia's tree in ten minutes."

Nico left the still bouncing Will and grabbed a black bag with 'Never trust the living' written on. After throwing a few essentials in there - clothes, Mrs O'Leary's whistle, Dante's Inferno, a few daggers, and a travel pillow (black, with cartoon bones all over it) - he sprinted to the boundary line.

"Ready to go?"

"You bet!"

A single snap of his fingers brought Jules-Albert to the surface; they climbed in and sped away.

 **A/N Never trust the living - Corpse Bride. Also a good film.**

 **Reviews make (my little corner of) the world go round, so thanks!**

 **Well done, LittleDeformedOne for guessing the speaker at the end of the last chapter!**

 **~Fi**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N This is one of the longest chapters yet, because so much happens...**

 **Enjoy!**

 _It's a good thing Jules-Albert doesn't need to sleep or anything,_ Nico thought, _or this would take even longer_.

They'd been driving straight through the afternoon, into the night, and then out into the morning again, stopping only once at services to buy food and use the toilets. About two hours ago, Will had finally dozed off after sitting awake for the last thousand miles. Which was great. What was not great, however, was the fact that the blond had neglected to pack a pillow, and opted to use Nico's shoulder instead.

 _Which wasn't so bad, actually,_ Nico reflected, glancing at his sleeping boyfriend.

No, the bad part was that they'd been like that for two hours. Will's head was _heavy._

Drumming his fingers lightly on the red velvet arm rest, he turned his attention to the window. The countryside was still rushing past, the same way it had been for the last... nineteen hours. It was getting a little dull, honestly. Having slept through the night - "Sleep!"

"It's dark. I can't!"

"I'll turn the lights on!"

"I can't sleep with the lights on!"

"I'll turn them on anyway."

"Thanks Nico."

"Zzzzzz..."

"..." - he was now rather bored. Great driver though he may have been, Jules-Albert was not much of a talker, and endless solo games of 'I'm thinking of something...' gradually lost their thrill.

Especially when they all went along the lines of _: "I'm thinking of something blond. It's sleeping - it's Will. I'm thinking of something blond - it's Will. I'm thinking of - it's Will. Also, the next one is Will. And the one after. - How did I guess that?"_

Great fun.

The car went over a pothole in the road and Will's head slipped off his shoulder.

"Whasssat!?"

"Morning, sleepy head. Zeus, my shoulder hurts now..."

"Sorry about that - oh, no!"

Will looked away, pink in the face, from the sleeve of Nico's shirt. "Please tell me you didn't drool on my shirt, Soleggiato."

Will didn't answer and Nico groaned. "You have really bad bed hair."

Will patted his head. His golden hair was matted just above one ear, where he'd been leaning, and really spiky on the other side. Nico couldn't help himself, and started ruffling it up again.

"Stoppit, Death Boy!"

"Or what, Soleggiato?"

"The city, master," announced their driver.

XxX

They had arrived in the middle of a carnival. There were people everywhere, in all manner of brightly coloured costumes and masks; vendors waving scraps of ribbon into people's faces; fluorescent floats with scantily clad dancers on; shops boasting charms and amulets, shoes and hats, face paints, and -

"Food." They spoke together, then headed for the nearest bakery.

Sitting at a small table under a stripy awning, Nico found himself having to forcibly restrain himself from stuffing whole croissants into his mouth. Will but into one and moaned as chocolate dripped from the hole he'd made in it.

"These are sooo good..."

Nico had more pressing matters on his mind. "How are we going to find the demigod in all of this?" He gestured to the procession.

Will shrugged. "Wait for a monster attack..."

"So responsible, huh?"

"This is my first time out of camp, excluding war and a trip to New Rome. Let me enjoy myself..."

At that moment, they became aware of raised voices from inside the bakery.

"It's my business what I'm doing with it!"

"As the owner, I must ask that you provide a reasonable explanation for this -"

"You have such bad taste in these things! Blue taffeta? Honestly!"

"Well you can go jump off a bridge!"

"Maybe I will sell that house after all!"

They glanced at each other in confusion, then back at the occupants of the cafe. Friend had turned on friend, patron on owner; and in the midst of it all, a small boy snuck out of the door and down an alley, several boxes of pastries clutched in his arms.

"What the -?"

As the arguing died down, a tall, bulky figure split from the rainbow flow of costumes and moved purposefully towards the same alley.

Nico exchanged a glance with Will, then they stood up in unison.

A scream echoed out of the alley way, followed by a thud and a snap. Drawing his sword with a jerky movement, Nico gave chase, will on his heels.

In the narrow gap between buildings, the boy was curled up on the floor by one wall. The monster had shed his blue cape and mask and was towering above the child, fangs bared, saliva dripping in thick ropes from its foaming jaws. Three straight, jet black horns ran from the top of his head down to the centre of its back, like a bizarre, three stranded mohican, and short fur covered its sinewy torso. It had a bull's head.

It kinda looked like the minotaur; if the minotaur decided to go punk, worked out more, pierced its ears, and wore nail varnish.

Will appeared to be thinking the same thing. "Hey... that looks like the -"

The creature swung a meaty fist towards them - Nico ducked - Will did not. He hit one wall with a sickening crunch, then slumped, motionless, to the ground.

The beast swung its fist again, and Nico rolled between its legs, came up behind it, and swung his sword. The trio of horns came clattering to the ground.

The young boy whimpered.

The monster turned just in time to watch as Nico's sword plunged into its chest. It exploded in a shower of gold.

XxX

It took a while to bring Will round. When he did finally wake up, he was able to say, with no small amount of certainty, that nothing was broken. He did, however, admit to having an awful headache.

The boy had not moved in all this time. When the two advanced on him, he let out a small squeak and tried to back further against the wall, clutching his wrist. Nico stood back and let Will talk to him.

"Hello. I'm Will." Will smiled. "Are you alright?"

The boy nodded jerkily.

Will picked up a box of pastries and held them out. "Do you know what happened?"

Grabbing the box with his other hand, the child nodded. He was very dirty, and dressed in rags. His hair was matted with filth, and though it appeared black, could have originally been almost any colour. Some of his ribs stuck out, and his face was too thin.

"We can protect you from that kind of thing. What's your name?"

The boy seemed to think for a moment. "Badger."

Nico breathed out slowly through his nose, and Will, still smiling gently, shook his head.

"No, your real name."

"What Uncle called me?"

"Yes, that's the one."

The boy shrank a little. "Waste-of-space."

Will looked at Nico. _Poor kid_ , Nico thought.

"Okay, I think we'll call you Badger. Can you stand up, Badger?"

The boy - the demigod - Badger - stood up slowly, still keeping his wrist in close to him.

"Can I see your wrist please, Badger?"

Badger held out his wrist. It was quite clearly broken.

"Nico, come here."

Nico took a step forward, and Badger recoiled. "He's got a sword! Don't let him -"

 _Here we go._

"Badger, this is Nico. He's my... friend." _Owch._ "He saved you from that monster. Please let us help you."

This time the boy allowed Nico to approach and place a hand over the break. Will placed a hand over Nico's, and Nico felt the warm feeling that appeared every time Will healed with his help wash through him. Badger's snapped back into shape.

"Will you come with us, Badger?" Will still spoke softly, as though to a frightened animal. "Where's the nearest hotel, do you know?"

XxX

The hotel was ridiculously expensive. Nico had looked at the price list and then turned to walk away again before Will called him back.

"Isn't your dad the god of riches?"

"Oh, yeah."

XxX

As soon as they entered their newly rented suite, Will handed some clothes _(Nico's_ clothes, out of _Nico's_ bag) to Badger and told him to go wash.

He came back a full forty five minutes later, with brown hair and grey eyes, and hunched in a chair as Will explained everything.

"That must be so scary!"

"It isn't, not really. When I fight, I just -"

"Please." Nico felt suddenly angry. "When you fight? When do you ever fight?"

Will stood up and glared at him. "I fight loads!"

"No you don't. You let me fight. And you are scared. You're always worrying and -"

"At least I can explore caves! You end up crying in a corner every time you go underground!"

Nico drew in a sharp breath. "At least _I_ can still walk around at night! I don't spend half my life being scared of shadows!"

"Guys, please..." they both ignored Badger.

"I don't need you to protect me all the time, Nico! You're not -"

"Not _what?_ What am I, Will? Your friend? I heard that, you know! You don't accept me really!"

 _"I_ don't accept _you? You're_ the one that refuses to tell people!"

"Guys, please!" They pretended they didn't hear.

"I never! I'm the one that has to protect _you_ from your own stupid mistakes!" Where was all this resentment coming from?

"You don't have to protect me! I can defend myself! I don't need you!"

"Then _go!"_ Nico pointed at the door. "You won't last ten minutes without me!"

"MAYBE I WILL!" The blond boy stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Nico's anger melted away on the spot as he stared at the door, wondering what had just happened.

On the sofa behind him, Badger started to cry.

XxX

"My Lady, I found Hypnos!"

"Took you long enough, Beauty. Charity here found the mortal in less than half the time."

"I do my best, my Lady."

"I apologise, my Lady."

"Why did you wish to see me, Lady?"

"Hypnos. Can you remove certain memories with Lethe?"

"No. Lethe is an all or nothing deal: it only leaves muscle memory and sometimes their own name."

"That's useless. You may leave."

"Lady."

"Charity, take the cup of Lethe and dispose of it."

"Of course, my Lady... Argh! I'm so sorry, my Lady, I apologise -"

"Just clear up the spillage, girl. And take the mortal from my , you may attend my hair."

"My Lady."

"My Lady."

 **A/N So... I know pretty much nothing about New Orleans, broken bones, alley ways, fighting, or bakeries, so if 've got something wrong, please do tell.**

 **Your reviews light up my day!**

 **Thanks to Silver Huntress of Artemis and JoJoDragons for being amazing!**

 **~Fi**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N ... I don't think this is up to my usual standards, this chapter. But here it is anyway. If it is really bad, blame homework, studying, making pudding, and eating.**

The slam of the door still ringing in his ears, Nico stormed over to the couch and sagged onto it. For a while, the only sounds were his harsh breathing and Badger's hiccuping sobs.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Nico looked at the younger boy. "Why are you sorry?"

Strange how having been shouting at the top of his voice moments before, he was now almost calm, except for a slightly empty feeling.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

 _"Why_ are you sorry, Badger?"

Hesitantly, Nico raised one arm and patted the brown haired child on the back.

After a few seconds, his sobs died down.

"It's my fault. It happened again..."

"What happened?" Nico was genuinely curious now.

"Wh-whenever I get excited, or- or angry, or really hungry, or something..." Badger took a deep breath. "People start arguing and shouting and stuff... I think it happened again jus-just now..." he hid his face in Nico's T-shirt.

"I'm so sorry!" He wailed.

Nico let out a great sigh. That explained his sudden rush of anger and resentment towards Will. He remembered the strange behaviour of the people in the cafe earlier that day - that made sense too, now.

He had a creeping feeling that he knew who Badger's godly parent was...

"Hey, hey, hey, Badger. It's alright. I'm not angry with you. We'll sort this out when we get to camp - I'll just apologise to Will, then we'll be off."

Badger gave a weak grin. "Thanks."

Upon opening the door, however, Nico found that Will was no longer in sight. A small mark on the back of the wood suggested that Will had sunk down against the door immediately on leaving; now he was gone.

"Uh, excuse me? Mister?" Badger was tugging on his sleeve.

"Yes? I'm called Nico."

The boy held out one hand, and pointed at the ground with the other. "These were on the floor..."

He was holding a couple of powder pink rose petals.

Aphrodite.

"When I find that godess!" Nico exploded. "Hasn't she made my life hard enough? And where am I meant to find her, in this city?"

He started pacing up and down the hallway, swearing under his breath.

"Um... Nico?"

"What _now?"_

The smaller boy pointed.

Leading away towards the staircase was a thin trail of the same pink petals.

XxX

The sculpture garden was empty. Bizarre shapes loomed out of the trees, cloaked in mist, then solidified into stone features; letters, couples embracing, a broken heart...

The moon gently illuminated the trail of flowers as Nico and Badger moved slowly deeper into the garden. Nico shivered. He did not like this one bit.

 _It could be a trap..._

Then, one of the sculptures ahead of them definitely moved.

Nico had swung his sword almost before he'd registered the figure; now he watched in mute surprise as it stopped his blow with one, smooth finger.

"Now, now, Nico. Is that how we greet old friends? Say hello, now. Politely."

Three more figures danced out of the mist and stopped a few paces behind their Lady.

"Aphrodite." As Badger shrank behind him, Nico raised his sword once more: he fully intended to attack the godess. Hadn't she interfered with his life often enough?

But the lady only laughed. "You need not attack me, Nico di Angelo. Neither I nor my graces-" she gestured to the three girls- "will attempt to halt your progress. Nor shall we hide the one you seek."

One of the graces giggled and whispered to another, "He doesn't need hiding, thanks to you, Charity!"

The other girl - Charity - looked at her feet.

"Beauty, be quiet. We've hindered our heroes long enough, girls."

There was a flash of pink light, and the women were gone. Several more petals drifted to the floor.

"Who _were_ they?" Whispered Badger.

"Just my second least favourite godess adv her attendants. Don't worry about it, Badger. I doubt you're related directly to her anyway..."

Will was sleeping inside a giant letter 'O', part of a square of writing reading 'LOVE'. Nico ran over to him and shook him.

As Will opened one, gorgeously blue eye, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He ignored the part of him that said, _that was too easy._

Gathering Will into a tight hug, Nico muttered into his ear.

"I'm sorry, Will. I _didn't_ mean it, I _don't_ think you're weak. I'm _sorry."_

His heart plummeted when Will placed a hand on his chest and shoved him away. His face was the same colour as Aphrodite's rose petals, and confusion settled like a blanket over his familiar features.

"Will?"

Will shook his head, and breathed out slowly. He still did not let Nico approach, though.

Instead, he held out a hand, and said, quite sincerely:

"I apologise, I don't think I've had the pleasure. I'm Will Solace. And you are...?"

Nico's heart shattered.

 **A/N If anyone actually knows anything about the sculpture garden in New Orleans, please share it with me.**

 **Also, if you can guess Badger's godly parent, please send me a message!**

 **Reviews are always welcome!**

 **~Fi**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N I found this chapter really hard to write; I'm sending you all ice while I drop my writer's block on your feet. I blame my English teacher: she wants us to write a piece of fiction about going to a new place, and it has to be realistic. So no fantasy, which is of course what I'm decent at writing...**

 **But I did my best with this chapter.**

"Will, I said I'm _sorry. Please_ don't do this to me. _Please."_ Nico prayed that Will was just mad at him; something he'd never wanted before. He couldn't comprehend the alternative.

But something about Will's eyes convinced him. They were the same shade of pale blue, the same size, with the same yellow fleck to the left of the pupil; but they held none of the things that made Will, _Will._

"Really, Mister, I have _no_ idea _who_ you are. Now, if you won't let go of me, I will have to call the police..."

"Will..." Nico whispered.

 _This couldn't be happening._

He dropped Will's sleeve, and the blond backed away a step.

There had to be something he could do...

 _I'll settle for getting him back to the hotel,_ he decided.

Grabbing Badger by the wrist - "Hey!" - Nico lunged forward again and got a firmer grip on Will's elbow - he jumped sideway into the shadows.

"The hell!" Will gagged as they reappeared in their rented suite. He looked around and frowned. "Oh, gods, this is bad. Let me go!"

He took a step towards Nico and raised his fist threateningly. Badger whimpered.

 _I can't let him hit me like this - for one, he'll break his hand: that's_ not _how you make a fist._

He couldn't let Will rampage through the hotel, shouting about kidnap and magic...

 _And_ Will was scaring Badger, who had curled up behind the sofa, his arms over his head.

 _"Sleep."_

"I'm not falling fo-" Will blinked once, then crashed to the floor.

"It's okay, Badger. You can come out now."

The brown haired boy crawled out of his corner and looked at Will. "Is he going to be alright? And can you teach me to do that?"

Nico chuckled emptily. "Hypnokinesis? One of the things related to Hades, so probably not... and he'll be f-" he took a deep breath to steady himself -"fine. The people at camp will know how to fix- how to get his memories back."

Barber's grey eyes widened. "When are we leaving?"

"I'd shadow-travel us there -what I just did to get back here - but I don't have the energy. We'll leave now and sleep in the car. Re-"

"We can't go yet!"

He looked at the younger boy. He was shaking slightly.

"Why not?"

"I can't leave Snake behind!"

Nico took another deep breath. There didn't seen to be enough oxygen in the room that night.

"Who's Snake?" He ground out.

XxX

When Badger finally returned a whole _two and a half hours_ later, he was leading a girl slightly shorter than himself. Her hair was stark white under a layer of grime, and hung limply to half way down her back. It was slightly curly, and the nails on the hand that was holding Badger's were bitten stumps.

He led her to the sofa opposite the one that Nico had placed the sleeping Will on, and she sat down. She made no move to study her surroundings.

 _Overconfidence is a serious flaw in a demigod_ , Nico assessed.

Badger gestured to the girl proudly. "This is Snake, my sister. Snake, meet Nico. He and Will saved me and they say they're going to take us to a new home! Will's sleeping - say hello, Nico!"

 _Why did he tell her that Will was asleep? It was obvious that he was sleeping..._

Nico said hello, and Snake nodded in his tough direction. "Badger? Why am I here?" Her voice trembled slightly: she was clearly afraid.

Badger cast a look at Nico that clearly said, I need you to explain.

"Okay, but if I explain," Nico responded, "am I going to find myself arguing with anyone again?"

Badger had the decency to look abashed. "No. But some stuff might fall off the shelves... maybe..."

Nico sighed, and started talking. It took the better part of an hour, and a few things did indeed wobble and fall from the shelves as he spoke.

 _Interesting_.

He finished with a plea. "Will you look at me, Snake? Look me in the eye?"

Badger drew in a sharp hiss, sounding more snake-like than Snake herself, and started moving towards Nico as though he meant to attack; the girl held up a hand to stop him.

She raised her head in the direction of Nico's drawn face.

After Nico had sent the siblings to wash, he paced the lounge. Things were getting complicated. He had an unconscious boyfriend who remembered only his own name and nothing about Nico, his siblings, or his life; two new, powerful and possibly dangerous siblings that he had a feeling he knew which cabin they belonged in; not enough energy to use his power for anything more than summoning a small cat - it was running around by his feet, its tail vertebrae clicking and shimmering in the light cast by the lamps; and no idea what to do.

At least he had Jules-Albert to take him, Will, Badger, and Snake back to camp. He didn't think he could cope with walking, and he _definitely_ wasn't about to try the same thing as he had done with the Athena Parthenos...

His thoughts drifted back to Snake, and the dead cat wound itself around his feet. It could clearly sense his discomfort and pity for the silver haired child.

She would soon learn to control her power - her and her brother both - and the two would protect each other at camp, and anywhere else, Nico could tell.

But she would be a liability on a battlefield. She wouldn't shoot a bow, and a sword too would be hard for her to master. She wouldn't see the sun rise over the cabins, and she would have trouble navigating the cluttered, chaotic camp for months.

Because when Snake had raised her head to look at him, he had understood in an instant why she had not studied her surroundings; why she clutched Badger's arm so tightly. He understood why it had taken so long for them to get here, and why Badger had told her that Will was here and sleeping.

Where her eyes should have been, there was only skin stretched over empty sockets; for Snake had no eyes.

She was blind.

 **A/N I needed to add Snake. No-one has managed to figure out their parents: please do try!**

 **Oh, Badger is 8, and I think Snake is 7; they have the same parent though.**

 **So... what do you think? Please do review me!**

 **~Fi**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N You almost didn't get an update today; it's been hectic. But here we go...**

 **It's pretty short, so sorry.**

The journey back to camp was slow and painful. Being unable to summon anything to help, Nico had to carry the still snoring Will into the car himself. It then took half an hour to convince Badger and Snake that they'd be fine in the car and that it was _not_ going to try and eat them: apparently, neither of them had ever been in one. Then, Badger cried that they'd need to sign out of the hotel... all in all, they left a good four hours later than Nico had planned.

When he was not sleeping, Nico was bombarded with endless questions from the endlessly curious Badger. Fortunately, Snake did by say much and merely gripped her brother's hand. He did not think he would 've able to handle two sets of questions.

He ended up telling them his life story. Or highly edited parts of it, anyway. He neglected to tell them his exact feelings for Percy, and ignored too the months he'd spent listening to no-one but his own, self-loathing brain, and Midas' manipulative voice. Instead he told them about how he'd mastered his power, and all the cool things Camp Half-Blood could offer them.

 _I sound like a cheesy advert,_ he reflected.

They had reached Manhattan before he was stopped. He had been explaining about the Titan war (not in any great detail. He didn't want to scare them that much), and had got to the point where the Gods had arrived, losing badly to Typhon, when Snake let out a small whimper. Someone on the street nearby them cursed loudly as several crates fell into the road. A lorry ahead swerved and tipped over, blocking the street, and a car a few lanes back suddenly burst into flame. An old lady lost control of her dog - a massive great dane, easily reaching Nico's stomach - and it bounded through the street market, knocking stalls and people all over the place.

The traffic was going nowhere fast, so they all got out of the car and Nico clapped his hands, causing the black limo to sink back into the ground. Then they were swamped with people. Chaos reigned around them, and the noise and the mass of bodies pressing in and the voices and the stink of exhaust fumes made Nico's head spin. He clutched Will's sleeping body with one arm and Snake's elbow in the other, and looked about wildly for somewhere quiet to escape to. Nothing.

Then the white haired girl spoke. "Walk forward ten paces, then go left."

He stared at her. She sounded not only perfectly calm, but also as though she could _see_ what was happening. He looked at Badger and the boy nodded.

"She's good in times like this."

He could ponder that later. He took ten hesitant paces forward, then turned dubiously to the left. After a few more paces, they reached a by road: still crowded, but marginally less so.

They followed the road. About half way down, Snake shrieked, "Watch out!", and shoved him roughly aside.

A heavy box of fruit landed where he'd been standing.

 _How did she...?_

There was no time to worry now. Muttering a confused 'thanks' to the girl, he let her lead them out of the crowds. The quieter the streets became, the less Snake said, until when they reached a deserted road, she had returned to her old, unconfident self. He was able to recall Jules-Albert and clamber laboriously back into the car, dumping Will unceremoniously onto an empty seat.

 _Zeus, but the boy was heavy._

Snake muttered a sleepy "sorry," and, resting her head against her brother's shoulder, fell asleep. Badger followed suit, leaving Nico to wonder how it was that a blind girl was able to navigate perfectly in unchecked chaos, through a place she'd never even been, and what she could possibly have to be sorry about.

 **A/N So as I said, shorter than usual. But important things.**

 **Thankyou, xxXThalico-loverXxx, for being nice and awesome.**

 **A hint, seeing as no-one has correctly guessed Badger and Snake's parent. Will mentioned them a few times during his narrative. I welcome all guesses and reviews!**

 **~Fi**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N The mystery is ended in this chapter! Thanks to everyone who tried to guess Snake and Badger's parents: it wasn't Cupid or Nemesis, nor was it Demeter or Thavma...**

 **Thank you, Marcus Bond.**

He only had about half an hour to ponder, for then they arrived at camp. Nico had Jules-Albert drive them straight over to the infirmary, and then carried Will inside. Kayla freaked out.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Hey! I only put him to sleep!"

"How long had he been sleeping for?!"

Nico thought about it. "Um... maybe 26 hours?"

He thought Kayla might burst a blood vessel, she had gone so red. "Wake him up, NOW!"

He dumped Will onto a bed and backed away. Hellhounds and dracaenae he could handle without batting an eye, but Kayla was scary...

"Um, there's just -"

"I don't care! _NOW!"_

Nico sighed and waved his hands, causing the blonde's eyes to snap open. He yelled, looked around, and yelled again.

"Where am I? Who are you people? What do you want with me?"

Kayla shot Nico a look that quite clearly said, _we'll talk later_. Then she stepped towards the trembling boy.

"Will, it's me, Kayla. Calm down."

"I don't remember you! I don't know if I've met a Kayla in my life!"

Kayla's eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away. "Will, please..."

"I don't know you!" His eyes landed on Nico. "Get him away from me - get him away! He did something to me, he kidnapped me!"

It felt like a punch to the gut, the hatred that clouded Will's blue eyes when he looked at him. Nico flinched, and backed out of the door.

XxX

Badger and Snake were still in the car, but it looked like they were arguing about something. Nico swung open the door just in time to hear the boy say:

"He saved my life, Snake, and I trust him! I'm staying here!"

His sister opened her mouth to retaliate. Her cheeks were bright red, and her fists were clenched.

Nico felt an irrational surge of anger.

 _It's Badger again._

"Woah woah woah guys! Don't fight!"

"She started it," announced a sullen Badger.

Snake turned her face away from his voice.

"It doesn't matter..." Nico sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's just take you to meet Chiron, alright?"

He had to be doing something - anything - or he'd end up dwelling endlessly on the fact that Will no longer knew him; the fact that Will hated him.

When they got out of the limo and it had sank into the ground, the siblings surprised Nico by taking his hands. Badger, on his left, held on loosely, his palms warm, while on his right Snake's icy grip was tight. As they started moving towards the Big House, she whispered, "For what it's worth, I trust you too."

A small, warm feeling appeared in his chest, taking the edge off of his feelings about Will.

Chiron welcomed the children warmly, then started showing them around camp. As they both had yet let go of Nico's hands, he came too. Badger seemed really interested in the archery range and the climbing wall, whilst Snake perked up when the centaur mentioned capture the flag.

 _I don't see how she'll be able to help in that,_ Nico thought, _but then again she was pretty amazing this afternoon..._

She also, bizarrely, seemed exited when the walked past the forges and the clamouring crowd of demigod within.

When the reached the beach - the end of the tour - the siblings released Nico and wandered into the surf. Chiron turned to him.

"What happened?"

Nico explained, hesitantly at first, then more and more fluently as he reached the end. He cursed the quaver in his voice when he told Chiron of Will's reaction to him. When he was done, Chiron frowned bad stroked his beard.

"Hmm... that kind of reaction normally only happens due to memory theft or lethe... he was asleep when you found him, you said?"

"Yes."

"Lethe it is, then. There's no way to get memories back after that; we just have to tell him the important things and let him make new ones." Chiron lowered his hand and looked intensely at Nico. "I'm sorry."

Nico just shook his head.

"And now... I must go and prepare for the campfire. Bring them along, won't you?" He gestured at Snake and Badger, the former of whom was trying to splash her brother by following the sound of his giggles.

They looked so happy.

XxX

Dinner was a subduedaffair. Most of the camp had heard about the results of their mission, but no-one came to talk to him about it. Jason and Piper were building a shrine somewhere, and Percy and Annabeth had also gone to find a new demigod - in Kentucky, this time - so Nico sat alone at the Hades table.

Snake and Badger were sitting at the head table with Chiron until they were claimed, and Will seemed to have been filled in. He sat at table 7 between Isla and Arla and opposite Austin, talking quickly. Clearly they were still explaining something to him.

Nico could almost feel the whispers running around through the empty air, and several people glanced his way and then went back to their conversations. He wished he knew what they were saying. His weeks with Will had helped, but now a creeping doubt settled comfortably into the back of his mind; the same seat it had occupied for so long.

 _What if I'm not welcome?_

The flames in the campfire glowed a deep purple and barely left the coals. The strings if marshmallows that the Stolls had suspended over it did not melt; they did not even go slightly soft.

Half way through a dulled version of the 'Hokey Kokey: Armour Edition', circles appeared over Snake and Badger's head: their parent sending a sign. It took the form of a yin and yang, only with an apple and a pentagon instead of the two dots of opposite colour.

"All hail Badger and Snake," Chiron dutifully intoned, "children of Eris, goddess of strife, discord, and chaos."

 _That explained a lot._

The Eris cabin cheered and welcomed the siblings warmly.

After the fire had ended, Nico hung around in the shadows, waiting to ask Kayla about Will. From this distance, he could hear their conversation.

"...and Leo is one of your closer friends."

"Am I ... um, seeing anyone?"

He could tell by Kayla's expression that she did not want to go there.

"Well, for the last few weeks, you and Nico have been... more than friends..."

Will sounded exited when he spoke next. "That's an odd name. Which one was she?"

Nico flinched.

"He was the pale, dark haired boy that sat on his own at dinner. Surely you remember him...?"

"The one that took me here?" Will's voice became darker, tenser. "The one that knocked me out and kidnapped me?"

"Yes, and he didn't kid-"

"Him? I'm seeing... _Him?_ Now I _know_ you're lying to me. I wouldn't go out with someone like _him!"_

A twig cracked under Nico's foot, and the children of Apollo spun around. The revulsion on Will's face was clear; Kayla looked like she was about to cry. "Nico- wait-"

But Nico turned tail and ran, Will's repulsed words ringing in his head.

 _I wouldn't go out with someone like_ him...

 _I knew it,_ he thought bitterly, and fled further into the darkness of the woods.

 **A/N Ah ha ha ha... *dodges knives* SORRY ABOUT THAT GUYS!**

 **~Fi**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N I've been watching Black Butler. It's really good...**

 **And... that was a totally pointless tthing to say. XD**

"Get up!"

"Go 'way. I'm sleeping."

There was a creak, and Nico was dumped unceremoniously onto the floor. He shook his head and looked up to see a dryad glaring at him. She had green hair that hung to her jaw line, and her dress had long lines drooping from shoulder to hem. The roots of her hair had gone slightly yellow and she looked slightly sickly.

"You're killing my tree! Go away!"

A quick glance at his surroundings told him that yes, a dead circle of vegetation surrounded him, a willow tree just inside its boundary, but also that the moon was up. _Midnight._

"Sorry, ma'am." Head drooping, he ducked into the shadows and came out in his cabin.

His eyes were red and raw from crying, and his throat hurt. His head felt full of stuffing.

When morning finally came, it brought with it a knock on the door.

He half hoped that it was Will, memory returned, coming to apologise for the previous night. Then he hoped it wasn't Will: he did not feel up to facing his brainwashed now-ex boyfriend. Then he hoped it _was_ Will again, so he could hit him.

It wasn't Will.

Kayla swept into the cabin despite his feeble protests, and made herself at home on the couch he and Will had sat on way back before this, before they were even dating, when Will told him that he was important. He didn't mind her sitting there - or rather, he minded, but it meant that he did not have to sit there. He took the other chair.

Kayla started talking at once. "Listen, Nico, I'm really sorry about last night, I really am, it's -"

"It's fine," Nico cut her off in a monotone. "He said it himself. Why would anyone go out with someone like me?"

"Nico-di-Angelo, don't give me that rubbish. You know he lost his memories, and that he's having a hard time over it. He hasn't even met you properly yet! He only got the vibe you -" she stopped abruptly and back peddled. "Uh, he's just conf-"

"What did you mean? What vibe? What?"

Kayla looked as though she wanted to sink through the floor. "Uh, nothing, I-"

 _"Kayla."_

"It's just... you always seem to exude this... Leave-me-alone vibe. And you normally seem really grumpy or angry. And your outfit doesn't help much..." she trailed away as Nico got to his feet and started striding up and down the cabin.

"So Will hates me because I look scary. Great. I knew that was how people saw me."

"No, Nico, he doesn't hate you!" Kayla cried.

"DON'T LIE! I saw the way he looked at me!" Nico's voice cracked, and Kayla reached out to lay a hand on his arm.

"Nico..."

"Don't touch me." He batted her hand away. "Get out, please."

"No, Nico, I think I should -"

"GET OUT!"

"Nico!"

He wished she would stop saying his name like that. He covered his ears with his hands, chanting, "Go away. Go away. Go away."

There was a slam as the door closed, then a click and a clatter as the skeletons that had the thrown Will's sister out locked the door and collapsed. He could hear her shouting something outside, but ignored it.

Everyone hated him. No-one accepted him really...

He ripped down the picture of him and Will that hung over his bed, and threw it into a corner. He swept the ornaments out of the cabinet and let them smash on to the floor; he threw the pillow on the moon stone bed across the room. That was the bed Will used when he slept over. He ripped the sheets too.

He was just about to start on the amethyst bed when the door swung open. He frowned. He was sure he had locked it...

But it wasn't Kayla this time. It was Snake. On her own, looking again as though she could see perfectly. He sat down abruptly and said, "Come in, Snake."

She stepped over the threshold and immediately tripped over the smashed ornaments.

"Ow..."

Nico got to his feet bad guided the small girl towards a chair. "What are you doing here?"

She furrowed her brow. "Badger said that you were really angry about something... I came to find you."

"Yes, but-"

"It turns out that the more chaotic a place is, the better I can 'see' it... it's easy to find my way here because no-one really seems to know what they're doing..."

"Thanks, Snake." Nico told her what was wrong. Or the more important parts, anyway. (She didn't need to know that he'd left a path of dead grass and plants through the forest, or that he'd just forcibly ejected Kayla from his cabin.) When he was finished, she frowned again, and then reached out-

 _And hugged him._

"You'll find a way to fix it. I'll help if you need me too."

Nico was stunned. Will (and Jason, that one (two) time(s)) was the only person that ever hugged him. And now Snake was hugging him, having only known him for two days.

 _Isn't she afraid of me?_

He choked back a sob and patted her hair awkwardly. "Thanks."

"Snake?" Badger poked his head around the still open door. "There you are! Come on, we've got a sword fighting class!"

He grabbed her hand, waved at Nico, and jogged off.

XxX

The havoc Nico had wrecked on his cabin, despite having taken only twenty minutes to create, took the rest of the day to clean up. He skipped lunch and later dinner, opting to be alone.

 _I'm not hungry any way,_ he told himself.

His stomach growled in disagreement, but he ignored it.

He had just swept up the last of the smashed glass, when he had a third - fourth? - unexpected visitor.

Avoiding people as he had been, he hadn't noticed the hunters arrive, but arrive they must have done, for standing in the doorway were-

"Thalia! And, uh, my Lady," he bowed to Artemis.

Thalia hugged him, but let go almost at once. "Hey, Neeks."

He hated her pet name for him; he prayed Will never found out about it. Then he remembered Will hated him.

Artemis looked closely at him. "Thalia, prepare the hunters for capture the flag."

Thalia nodded respectfully and left.

And Nico found himself telling the goddess everything. _(Again.)_

When he had finished _(again),_ she did not hum and say nothing was to be done. Nor did she hug him (but he hadn't been expecting a hug, and would have found it awkward if she had).

Instead, she looked at him steadily, and said the one thing he never thought he'd hear.

"There may be a way to fix this."

 **A/N ... So yeah...**

 **(Here is Artemis as promised, Huntress. I finally got her in :-) )**

 **Please review me!**

 **And if there is anything you particularly wavy to see in this scenario, drop me a note and I'll try to smuggle it in...**

 **~Fi**


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N Thanks to HS127481 and guest, for leaving really positive reviews. I will have to bed this at some point, but not just yet. And I'm glad you found it that captivating.**

There were plenty of different ways that Nico could have reacted to that, from laughing bleakly and saying that she was just trying to make him feel better, to pinning her against the door with a knife to her throat until she told him what she knew. All he could do, however, was stagger weak kneed to a sofa (again) and say something that sounded like, "Whapugug?"

Artemis chuckled slightly; a musical sound. Nico shook his head like a dog ridding itself of water and tried again.

"What do you mean?"

Taking the other couch, Artemis smiled gently at him. "Have you heard the legend of Balmána's daughters?"

Nico had to admit that he had not.

 _It sounds like she just made that name up..._

"Well, few have. She was a farmer, you see, and that sort of thing does not tend to get one noticed... she had three children, called-"

"Why?" Artemis frowned at him: he realised belatedly that interrupting a God was one of the stupid things only people like Percy did. Or people with a death wish. "Uh, I'm sorry, My Lady. I only wondered why... why you're helping me. I thought that..."

Artemis' frown softened into another dazzling smile. "That it was forbidden to help out with your dramas? It is. But I've never been great at following the rules."

"And also, if you don't mind me asking... why are you helping me. I thought you hated men." _Kill me now,_ Nico thought.

"I hate most men, yes. But my hunters seem to view you as a little brother, and I must say I agree... besides, you're not about to try and corrupt any of them. The Hunters of Apollo, though, _they'd_ be in trouble..." she chuckled again at Nico's beetroot of a face.

 _Oh, gods, please kill me now._

He managed to choke out a thanks, and Artemis continued with her story.

"Anyway, Balmána had three children, called Salia, Xanta, and Vernta. At some point, Balmána had an appointment with Persephone about the things she grew, and she left her daughters by the edge of the palace. When she came back, she found them by the banks of the Lethe, with no memories at all.

"The eldest, Salia, was returned to her fiance, with the hopes that he could help her make new memories. It drove him mad and he killed them both."

Nico flinched at the abruptness of the first daughter's death.

"The second daughter, Xanta, gained my brother's favour through guarding his cattle for him. He healed her."

She seemed to know what Nico was thinking, for she added, "You mustn't judge him too harshly. He is forbidden to help with your problems now, even when they concern his own children.

"The final daughter went several years with no memory. Finally, I recruited Vernta into my hunt." Artemis seemed lost in memories. "She was a strong warrior, good with many weapons... she died several millennia ago. I still mourn her." She shook herself.

"Anyway, there was this one monster that we fought together, the Ehtel. A ferocious beast; a worthy opponent. Vernta landed the killing blow, and as she did, the beast's silver blood splattered over her, into her eyes, her mouth. When she awoke days later, she remembered everything."

Nico's head exploded. "So... why haven't I heard about this before?"

The goddess sitting in his bone-and-velvet couch pondered this for a moment. "It was one of a kind, and took eons to reform. I am the only one still living, with a few possible exceptions, that knows of it's power, and it is deadly. One of the strongest I've ever fought."

"So... all I have to do is find this... this..."

"This Ehtel."

"Right, and give its blood to Will, and he'll be back again?"

Artemis laughed one last time. "Yes. But be warned, I do not know where the beast is. If you cannot find it, the kindest thing to do would be to let your boyfriend go."

She stood and left the cabin.

Alone in the darkened room, the only light the greenish glow of the skull sconces, Nico clenched one gist over the hilt of his sword.

"I'll find this monster. I'll find it, and kill it, and get you back, Will. I swear it on the river Styx."

Thunder rumbled overhead, and rain started to pound down on the cabins, the players of Capture the Flag, and the boy with no memories.

 **A/N Yes, I invented the legend of Balmána's daughters. And the Ethel. And the Hunters if Apollo (but they may become a thing) (or not.)**

 **I did turn Nico into a beetroot and then explode his head. I've had a long day.**

 **Reviews are** ** _always_** **welcome, whatever time of day. Just no flaming, please.**

 **~Fi**


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N Justslaygold, you asked how I managed to update so quickly. Actually, a couple of people had asked this (I assume you are all people and not, say, an orca on a laptop), and the answer is this:**

 **I have no social life.**

 **Thanks for reviewing and following me everyone!**

Nico was all for leaving as soon as the sun rose (Will's favourite time of day, he noted), but one small part of his brain spoke up with such a well reasoned argument that he ended up delaying. It spoke in Will's voice.

 _Stop, Death Boy. This monster could be anywhere - you don't even know what it looks like. Are you really going to search the entire world for something you've never seen before?_

He wanted to ignore it, but it spoke with a little too much certainty, just enough that it couldn't be ignored. It was pretty logical, too. _(Just like Will: he spoke like this a lot._ )

So he went to find Leo. As it was still just after dawn, he simply shadow-travelled into the private room under Hephaestus cabin where Leo slept. He didn't really want to wake the entire cabin. Leo, however, he owed for the amount of times the Latino had woken him on the Argo II...

He grabbed the boy's wrist and stepped back into the shadows.

It turned out that Leo didn't like waking up under the pier.

Nico quickly explained his problem, frequently interrupted by curses (he was glad they weren't Hephaestus' strong point - if a child of Hecate had told him that his limbs were going to turn into jelly, he would actually have been worried), stupid questions ("What kind of mother names her children Salia, Xanta, and Vernta?"), and even more stupid reactions ("I can't do anything. Why ask me?").

"Because, idiota, you can build something that tracks down this monster!"

Leo frowned pensively down at Nico.

 _I hate that even_ he's _taller than me..._

"Well, maybe I could," he eventually allowed. "But why can't you just leave it?"

It was like Leo had hit him in the face. "W-what?" He gasped.

Leo looked away from him. "Look, Nico," he began uncomfortably, "Will seems happy now. He doesn't have a problem with no memory. No, I don't think you're doing this for him. I think you're doing this for yourself: you can't stand him being happy without you. You _need_ him to need you. Who are you _really_ doing this for, Nico? Nico?"

Spinning sharply on his heel, Nico dashed a palm across his eyes and strode rapidly towards the shadows of a nearby wall. "Go to Tartarus, Leo."

Just before he jumped, he felt something catch his jacket. _Just the wind._

It wasn't.

When he reappeared, he was, for some reason, in China, and far more exhausted than he should have been. He hadn't accidentally visited Asia for a very long time...

His knees buckled and he slid down against a wall.

"Zeus' zebras! Is that- is that the Great Wall of China?!"

That explained it. An uncounted for extra passenger would throw his aim off a little. He ignored Leo.

"Nico? Why am I here?"

It's your own fault, Flame Head.

"Okay, not talking to me, huh? Fine." He felt the other boy slide down the wall next to him. "I just want you to think about what you're doing, Nico. I don't want you getting hurt for no reason."

Nico still refused to comment.

"Will you take me back now please?"

 _How dense is he? He knows perfectly well how tired I get after shadow-travelling..._

"I'm sorry I said you were only doing this for yourself, Nico. I know Will's important to you."

Nico opened one eye and tilted his head to look at the boy next to him, then raised one eyebrow.

"Suffering Circe! Fine, I'll help you. But... _ask_ him before you restore his memories, okay?"

"Sure. Thanks Leo."

Leo pulled himself back up and offered Nico his hand, which Nico took. "So... can you take us home now?"

Although still tired, at least he was steady on his feet. "Sure."

They arrived directly back in Leo's section of the forges. It was a decent sized room, with several work benches, a few cupboards of junk, more junk hanging from the walls and ceiling, and piles of - _gasp_ \- junk covering the floor.

Fortunately for Nico, there was also an oil stained couch by one wall; he collapsed onto it and passed out.

Dual travels to China were tiring.

XxX

"So you're going without me?"

"Yeah, but I promise I'll come back, Sunshine."

"You've said that before."

"I came back, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

A giggle.

"Guys! _GUYS!"_

"Oh, sorry Percy." Leo did not sound sorry.

"Just... don't let him do anything stupid, alright?"

Nico swung his legs off the edge of the cushions and sat up. "So you care after all, huh, Kelp Head?"

Percy jumped. "I know Leo's gonna be the one that gets in trouble. If he's worried about you, then he has less time to mess up..." he floundered.

"Hey!" Leo punched Percy lightly on the arm.

Nico smirked. "You know, he actually had a moment of reasonable thought earlier. Some of it actually sounded quite insighted..."

"I'm beginning to regret agreeing to this..." Leo muttered. Then he held out a small device.

It was roughly the size of a hardback book, with a fork sticking out of one end. A yoyo hung from the bottom corner, and a miniature wind vane adorned one of the flatter sides.

"... what is it?"

Leo's smile reached danger zone. _Any sane person should and would lock all the doors and windows and then take cover when that smile appeared_ , Nico reflected.

 _Good thing demigods aren't known for sanity..._

"This baby is going to find us that Kettle monster!"

Calypso took that as her cue to leave. Kissing Leo on one cheek, she slowly manoeuvred her way through the junk and out of the door.

 _What is he on about?_ Nico looked at Percy, who was nodding as though Leo had announced that a toaster made toast.

"... a _Kettle_ monster?"

Leo gave him a 'well, _duh'_ look. "The thing that gets memories back!"

"That's an _Ehtel_ monster! E-H-T-E-L! _EHTEL!"_

"Yeah, that thing."

Percy left as well, leaving just the two of them.

Leo gestured to the door. "Are we going?"

"We? You mean, you're coming?"

"Well, _duh."_

Nico couldn't be bothered to answer that.

"Come on, Death Boy! I have transport!"

"Don't call me Death Boy." Only Will got to call him that.

Transport turned out to be a shiny, bronze, car shaped thing.

"Celestial bronze!"

Nico denied to respond to that as well. "It looks like a tank."

"It _is_ a tank."

Nico just gave up.

XxX

The 'Find-The-Kettle-Monster-O-Matic' pointed them steadily northwards, so that was the way they went. The car drove itself, making the occasional random comment, and Leo started telling corny jokes about half an hour in to the journey.

"What do you get if you cross an elephant with a fish?"

"The cow says moo!"

"I don't know, Leo. I don't care either."

Leo pouted. "Harsh. The answer is... Swimming trunks!"

"That was awful."

"What do you get if you cross a vampire and a snowman?"

"..."

"Frostbite!"

Nico stated banging his head against one of the windows.

It turned out that Leo didn't mind telling jokes to the car interface, which meant that he talked pretty much constantly.

"ENOUGH! Please, Leo, no more!"

"The pig says oink!"

"Whuuu...?"

Nico twisted his head around so fast that he clicked his neck. "Ow!"

A pile of coats were moving around in the back of the vehicle.

"Who's there?" He called tentatively.

 _It better not be Travis or Conner..._

It was two people, but they were not the Stolls.

An unruly mop of brown hair and a stream of silver emerged from the pile.

 **A/N Enjoy!**

 **~Fi**


	32. Chapter 32

"What in Hades...?" Leo glared at the stowaways. "How did you get in my car?!"

Nico sighed. He might have guessed that if anyone had chosen to sneak onto this quest, it would be these two.

"Calm down, Leo. It's just Badger," he pointed at the boy, "and Snake."

"We came to help Nico!" Badger piped up, and Snake nodded vigorously.

Leo shot him a look that clearly said, _Now what?_

He shrugged. "They can come if they want." He addressed the siblings. "It'll be dangerous though. And you have to do exactly what I say. Agreed?"

"Woah, wait a second," Leo butted in, "why are _you_ in charge?"

"Because, Flame Head, it's my quest. And even if it wasn't, you forfeited all rights to leadership when you told me I was doing it for the wrong reasons." He wasn't going to forgive the Latino that easily...

"What do you mean, dangerous?" Asked Badger, but Snake spoke immediately.

"Count me in!"

The siblings started bickering. Leo raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes to the open sun roof in an overly exaggerated gesture, causing a very faint half-smile to appear on Nico's lips. "Our army has swelled in ranks, General Nico. We now number over three!"

Nico punched him on the arm.

XxX

The Find-The-Kettle-Monster-O-Matic led them further and further north, then west, then north again. _The 'car' (tank, whatever) must have been enchanted,_ Nico thought.

The fact that it flew was a dead giveaway.

Not only did it take off and fly just beneath the clouds, but it went so fast that what little land they could see went by in a blur. Soon, they had passed over into Canada, then into Alaska. They were beyond the help of the gods now.

Snake loved the speed of the 'car'; sticking her head out of the window to feel the wind whipping past her face, she would call out to any birds she could hear. Once, Nico had had to pull her back inside when a thing the size of a lion with razor sharp teeth and talons took a swipe at them, other than that, they met nothing larger than an eagle.

Badger, however, was Snake's complete opposite. Almost as soon as they took off, his face went a sickly shade of green, and it stayed that way for the entire time.

Nico did not love the vehicle the way Leo clearly did, but he did not hate it either.

It was just a means to an end.

They finally landed on a stretch of cliff by a steel grey, stormy sea. There was a sharp bite in the wind, and a layer of frost crunched under their feet. Nico was glad for the coats they had brought, but his ears and fingers still went red, and numb.

There was nothing alive nor dead anywhere in sight.

"I think your machine broke, Flame Head!" The wind snatched his words away from him, and he only barely heard the Latino's reply.

"It's over the sea!"

"So why are we here?"

"The car won't travel over the sea! We'd need a boat or something!"

Shaking his head, Nico trudged back to the car. Leo followed closely at his heels.

"Doesn't this thing-"

"It's a _car,_ man! Not a _thing!"_

"I think it's the best car _ever,"_ enthused Snake. Her silver hair was messy and tangled from being hung our of the 'car' as they flew.

"Why thank you, Princess." Leo pretended to bow to her.

"I _SAID,"_ interrupted Nico, "doesn't this thing turn into a boat?"

Badger groaned from the back seat.

"Don't be stupid, of course not! We'd need to be able to walk over the top of the surface!"

"Are you sure your... find-y device works properly, Leo? It wouldn't be the first time it sends us to _completely_ the wrong place..."

"I told you! Rio was a mistake, and that thing was a prototype! Of _course_ it went wrong!"

"Isn't this also a prototype?"

"Look, the monster is a few miles out, in the middle of that ocean. If you want to get it, you'll need a new plan."

Leo folded his arms and set his jaw.

 _No help there._

This time, Nico walked straight to the edge of the cliff and looked directly down. The white foam looked half way to being ice already, and the spray froze when it hit his cheeks. Five creatures sat on rocks about a third of the way up the rockface.

They were pure white, with each feathery wing the size of a surf board (Will had tried to teach him to surf. It had ended badly.), and sleek, feline bodies. Tails the length of Nico's whole body flicked mesmerisingly in the gale, and their faces, though humanoid, were covered in a fine dusting of white fur too. Their yellow eyes were cold slits, with vertical pupils.

"Who're you?" Nico yelled.

They jerked their heads up towards him and batted the air with their paws. Their claws looked sharp enough to cut diamond.

Then the one in the centre opened her mouth to reveal needle-like teeth. "We are the guardians. What do you seek?"

He tried to hide the tremble in his voice. "I would see the Ehtel."

The one on the far left spoke next. "What for, little hero?"

"To kill it and take it's blood."

The guardians burst into a high, screeching laughter. When they had calmed down enough, the one in between the first speaker and the one on the right replied.

"The Ethel would make mincemeat out of you. And before you can even reach it, you must first walk over water."

"And defeat us!" The second speaker crowed. "When united, nothing can best us!"

The one on the far right dismissed him with a haughty flick of her long tail. "Begone, little hero."

Nico all but sprinted back to the others.

He would never admit it to anyone, but the Guardians did what few monsters could.

 _They scare me._

 **A/N I'm gradually coming to a conclusion here...**

 **Your reviews make my life brighter!**

 **~Fi**


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N This was supposed to be a two-shot. It clearly isn't, but it will not be more than a thirty-seven-shot, just a heads up.**

 **You heard me correctly. I'm almost finished.**

Although being unable to turn into a boat, Leo's car/tank/thing was able to become a spacious tent, complete with two bedrooms, a sitting room, a kitchen, bathroom, and furniture. How it all folded down into the tiny car, Nico didn't know. Badger made the mistake of asking Leo how it worked, and they were still standing in the entrance thirty minutes later, Badger's eyes slightly glazed.

Snake asked to be taken into the kitchen and then ordered him to come back later. The clanging of pots and pans followed him away.

 _There has to be a different way to cross the water..._ Nico really did not want to use his first idea.

Not did he know how to get past the Guardians with their deadly claws and fangs. _They could try fighting, but their opponents had the advantage of flight, and did not have a blind team mate..._

 _When united, nothing can best us_ , they screeched in his brain. _Begone, little hero_.

He paced around the bronze room, thinking. He wished that there was some other colour in here; he wouldn't even mind bright pink, if it replaced the hideously bright, hideously reflective surfaces...

 _When united, nothing can best us._

 _When united, nothing can best us... When united..._

Maybe he would have to use his first plan after all...

As he prowled the room in increasingly tighter circles, a plan began to form in his brain.

XxX

Percy was in the middle of an archery class when Nico grabbed him. He had time to yell a brief, "Chir-ARGH!" Before he was dragged through the shadows and back to Alaska.

Nico almost passed out on to the sofa, but managed to merely collapse weakly onto the cushions. _Hera,_ but he was hungry.

Percy looked around, saw him, and started yelling. "Nico! What am I doing here?!"

Nico opened his mouth, but before he could, Leo and Badger rushed into the room.

"Percy? What are _you_ doing here?"

"And where did Snake go?"

Percy turned to Leo. "I was just asking that. And-" he looked at Badger- "I don't know, but your siblings are desperate to find you. You're going to be in _so_ much trouble when you get back to camp..."

Badger groaned.

"She's in the kitchen, Badger. And _you're_ here because we need your help with something." He avoided looking at the green eyed boy.

"You can come through now!" Snake's voice drifted thorough to them.

Nico didn't know what he was expecting when he entered the kitchen. Everything was covered in flour, from the chairs to the oven to the ceiling, and there were bits of vegetable and pastry everywhere. Pots, pans and various other utensils covered the counters, and something smelled like burnt hair. The most surprising thing of all, though, was the pie in the centre of the table.

"That smells great, Snake," he said.

She squirmed with pleasure. "All I had to do was make it chaotic enough to see in here..."

"Wow! What happened here?" Percy came in slightly behind the others.

"Oh, yeah. Nico saw fit to drag Percy out here, Princess. I'm sure he'll explain as we eat..."

Nico glared at Leo, but he was getting plates from a draw and missed it.

The pie was as good as it smelled; crispy and buttery, the crust crunched and gave way to a combination of potatoes, carrot, and a succulent meat that Snake said she had found in the fridge ("There's a fridge?" "Well, _yeah,_ Death Boy." _"Don't_ call me that.") and Leo claimed was steak. No-one believed him.

When every plate had been scraped clean and the dish was empty, everyone (with the exception of Snake) looked at Nico.

Percy spoke first. "Are you going to explain why you dragged me to... where in Hades are we anyway?"

Leo pulled something out of his tool belt, looked at it, turned it upside down, banged it on the table, and then looked at it again. "Barrow Point, Alaska. Yeah, you need to explain now, Nico."

Badger moved so that he was sitting closer to Snake. "What are we going to do?"

Nico sighed. _Time to spill..._

"Right, so you know how I told you guys about the Guardians?"

"Yes," chorused Snake, Badger, and Leo.

"No," said Percy.

Nico explained.

"And I was thinking, what if they were _not_ united? What if... they were at odds with each other?"

Leo put up his hand. "How would we manage that?"

"With a little discord," Nico looked at Badger, "and a little chaos," he directed his voice at Snake.

"I _LOVE_ this plan!" She squealed.

"And I'll be there to get your back, sis. We're in!"

"And I'll leave Leo with you. _Just,"_ he clarified, for all three looked mutinous, "in case. I'm sure you'll do a great job."

Percy made the water rise out of his glass and start twisting its way through the air. "But that doesn't explain why _I'm_ here."

"I'm getting to that. Leo says the Ehtel is a few miles off the coast... And I need to be able to walk on water to get to it. You have to make the surface of the water solid so I can do that. Then I'll kill the Ehtel, we go back to camp, and restore Will's memories!"

Percy lost concentration and the ribbon of water splashed down over Leo's head. "Oi!"

"Sorry, man."

"So," Nico pressed on, "are we doing it?"

Badger and Snake looked thrilled. "Absolutely!"

Leo and Percy exchanged a look. "I don't like this plan..."

"But it's the only one we have, so I guess I'm in, Death Boy."

A cluster of bones erupted from the floor by Leo's chair, assembled themselves into a skeleton, and started chasing the Latino around the room. "I told you not to call me Death Boy, Flame Head!"

Percy shook his head and looked mournfully at the bow that he was still holding. "I'm in."

 **A/N For those of you that are following my Jiper, Lightningstruck Dove, I should be updating that tomorrow...**

 **Thanks to everyone for reviewing! You all get skull cookies!**

 **~Fi**


	34. Chapter 34

**A/N I have written three chapters today (this, Lightningstruck Dove, and Blood Magic (Carry On by Rainbow Rowell)), as well as a minature program and report for Computer Science... My fingers hurt from all the typing...**

 **Shoutouts to theonewhoisBEST, Oswin Cadwin, Silver Huntress Of Artemis, and Vampire Demigod, thanks for reviewing with such positive stuff, guys!**

The first part of Nico's plan went rather well. He walked back up to the cliff and yelled down to the Guardians, who took interest in him at once.

"I bet you couldn't stop me after all!"

They bared their teeth at him and the muscled in their smooth, furry legs bunched up before they sprang into the air, claws extended, ready to rip him to shreds. He gulped.

"Badger!"

The first Guardian took a swipe at his face and he ducked. A few strands of hair floated down to rest on the floor beside him.

 _"Badger!_ Now would be good!"

A chunk of rock broke away from the side of the cliff and was carried on the wind. Slamming into one of the feline creatures, it cracked and fell through the air, it's victim plummeting after it.

At the same time, one of the Guardians suddenly started screeching insults at the others, who instantly replied. More rocks followed, and soon the Guardians were too busy fighting one another to pay much notice to the demigods below.

"Thanks, guys," Nico gasped. Badger nodded at him, and Snake waved her fingers towards the rock face, causing a few more chunks of stone to break off. Leo sent some fire streaking towards the creatures, and laughed as they opened their maws and breathed ice at him.

"Go! We got this!"

Nico gestures to Percy, who ran over and raised the level of the water until they could step onto it. As it descended back to its original level, he breathed out slowly.

"Are you... are you shaking, Nico?" Percy looked at him, concerned.

"No," he snapped.

The surface of the ocean stilled before them, becoming slick and glassy. Taking a tentative step, then another, Nico started walking along the cause way that Percy had made, and the green eyed boy followed him.

The sea spray soaked them in freezing water, and Nico was glad for the extra protection of his aviator jacket. _Percy probably isn't getting wet at all..._

They walked for about half an hour, steadily further and further from the shore in a straight line, scanning the waters around them for any sign of the Ehtel.

"What does this thing look like, anyway?" Percy asked.

 _I don't know,_ Nico realised. Artemis hadn't mentioned it in her tale, and there was nothing out in the ocean to give a clue to its size or type. He wasn't about to admit that to Percy, though.

"You'll know when you see it," he called back.

"In other words, you don't know. Great." Nico glanced over his shoulder at the other boy, and saw a bead of sweat gather on his brow. He hoped Percy wouldn't run out of energy before they got back to shore.

 _A dip in this sea would mean certain death,_ said the part of his brain that spoke in Will's voice. _The cold would cause your body to start shutting down..._

 _Shut up,_ he thought back.

Then, the glassy area of water widened dramatically to create a calm circle about 100 metres in diameter. Glancing at Percy, he saw that the other boy looked just as confused as he was.

This was not Percy's work.

A single figure stood in the centre of the area, with its back to them, staring at the grey horizon. It looked humanoid, from its average shaped head and shoulders down to its normal feet (they were bare, though. That was peculiar, in this weather.) It was wearing a white shirt and loose trousers that looked as though they were made from clouds. It _looked_ harmless, but Nico had learnt never to judge things or people by first glances.

He couldn't tell if it was male or female.

Percy sat down behind him, clearly exhausted from their trip here, so he stepped forward.

"Ehtel."

It turned to face him - except that it didn't, for it had no face. Instead, there was just a stretch of plain white skin: no eyes, no nose, nothing.

"Have you come to kill me, little hero?"

 _Why does everything we meet call me that? And where is its voice coming from? It doesn't have a mouth..._

"Yes."

It laughed. "You will not manage it, little hero. Few can stand against me."

Then it stepped towards him. He raised his sword, keeping his eyes on its blank face - _and it changed._

It's body stayed the same; grey hair, white clothes, bare feet; but instead of porcelain white skin, it's face showed something else.

Percy gasped behind him, and whimpered slightly, and he almost dropped his sword in shock.

For suddenly, he was staring into the eyes of his dead sister.

And Bianca looked back at him from the creature's empty face.

 **A/N What do you think of the Ehtel, guys? It's been pretty fun to invent...**

 **Hope you enjoyed, as ever!**

 **~Fi**


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N This is earlier than normal for me to be writing...**

 **I hope I did this monster justice!**

Bianca laughed happily and spun on the spot, snowflakes falling into her life hair. As Nico watched, she held out a hand towards him - no, it wasn't towards _him,_ it was just an image in the Ehtel's face - and grasped someone's gloved fingers, pulling them towards the building in the background of the image.

Nico stumbled backwards; he knew what would happen next and he did not want to see it.

"You see now why you cannot defeat me, little hero," came the Ehtel's voice, and it stepped forwards again.

The image changed to a much more recent one: a tall man with dark eyes was glaring towards him. Nico watched with sudden understanding as a much younger version of the boy sitting behind him jumped at the man, who was no longer a man but a snarling creature with a spiked tail...

The vision sped up, and when it slowed again, Nico was confronted with Percy again, now years older, wearing a torn orange shirt and a rucksack, a pillow in the shape of... a panda? poking out of one pocket.

"I- I know you," the image of Percy said. And to his horror, the image replied.

"Do you?"

The image swung slightly, and Nico saw Hazel off to the side: this was when she had introduced amnesiac Percy to him in Camp Jupiter.

He was watching his memories on the monster's screen-like face.

He - the real, present day he - stumbled back a step towards Percy, and the monster advanced again. "How- how are you doing that?"

As the creature laughed, the image changed - now, Nico watched again as Percy tumbled into Tartarus with Annabeth. "This is my power, little hero. I am memory itself, and you cannot best me."

Percy whimpered again, and Nico wondered what memories he saw in the Ehtel's face.

A flash of his travel through Tartarus, and then the image settled on a square in Rome, empty except for Jason. And himself, of course.

He remembered that moment all to well.

Closing his eyes and trying to block cupid's taunting from his ears, he groped desperately for his sword.

He was going to kill this thing, no matter what memories it thew at him.

"...see a friendly face..."

That was Will's voice! His eyes snapped open again just in time to watch himself follow the other boy into the infirmary after the Roman war.

"Ahh, I found it," the Ehtel purred. "I found the thing you could never harm. You have los-"

 _"No."_ This thing was _not_ going to use Will against him.

It flinched. "What?"

Drawing strength from the image of the blond boy, Nico hauled himself back to his feet, sword in hand. "I have not lost. I will _not_ lose!"

He swung the sword at the beast's head.

But the Ehtel chuckled and launched into a back flip, dodging the blow. "So you can still stand against me, little hero?"

He did not bother to reply; advancing forward, stance low, he made another vicious swing at it. It stopped laughing, and a whip appeared in each hand. It swung them ferociously, and Nico had to leap back to avoid being hit.

He could do with some back up...

And then he realised how badly he'd planned this. Percy was too exhausted to help him, and he'd left the rest of his team at the top of a cliff a few miles back. Moreover, he could not summon anything to help him, as whatever he called from the earth would have the ocean in between it and the beast he has to destroy.

 _I'm on my own._

One of the monster's ice studded whips came swinging towards his head, and he raised his sword instinctively - but that must have been what his opponent wanted. Curling around his sword, the whip dragged him back towards its weilder; he ducked to avoid the other weapon, refusing to let go of his sword.

And then he was face to face with the Ehtel, watching his and Will's first kiss.

The idea that the monster was going through his most private memories jarred him, filling him with fury. Jerking his sword upwards, he managed to slice through the restraint upon it - and then the Ehtel was lying on its back, him kneeling on its chest, his blade to its throat.

He swung.

Just before the blade connected, he was greeted with one final vision.

Bianca, her face streaked with tears, her lip trembling and fear in her eyes, held her hand out to him. "Help me, Nico! Please!"

The beast exploded into dust. Something clinked onto the glassy surface that had formed their battleground, and he put his face in his hands.

A pressure on his shoulder alerted him to Percy's presence. "Hey." He wiped his eyes before facing him.

"That was... that was really brave, Nico. I'm sorry I..." his voice faded away and he winced, whatever memories the Ehtel had shown him clearly still raw in his mind.

"Yeah, well. Thanks, Percy."

Pulling himself to his feet and sheathing his sword, Nico looked around at the pile of yellow dust.

Something silver glinted from the floor beside it, and he stooped to pick it up.

It was a flask of silver blood. "I got it..."

He tucked it safely into his pocket and turned back to the green eyed boy. "Feel up to getting us back to shore, Kelp Head?"

 **A/N I haven't properly written a fight scene before, and I hope that was okay...**

 **Thanks to Guest! (I hope you know who you are.)**

 **~Fi**


	36. Chapter 36

**A/N I know I said not more than 38 chapters. But we might be looking at 40...**

The situation in the shore had deteriorated in the time it had taken them to fight the Ehtel.

When they had left, the Guardians had been nicely divided, squabbling amongst themselves, while Leo had shot the occasional blast of fire at them, and Badger and Snake kept the chaos going.

Now, however, there were no chunks of rock flying through the air, and only two of the cat-like beasts were arguing. Leo waved a hammer towards the other three, sending a few flames towards them, whilst Snake lay at his feet, her chest barely moving. Badger sat next to her, looking as though he was about to pass out.

When Leo saw them, he seemed to get some energy back.

"It's about time! We need help here!"

"We'd noticed," Nico called back. Percy was too tired to say much, having controlled the currents for longer than he was used to.

One of the three trying to attack Leo turned and hissed at him, then flew at his head. He raised his sword, and it exploded in a cloud of dust, most of which he inhaled.

Coughing, he looked up just in time to see Badger succumb to his exhaustion and collapse next to his sister. The two that had been arguing returned to their brethren, yowling with rage.

Nico sprinted forward to help the Latino boy, disregarding the muffled thud behind him as Percy's knees gave way.

Back to back, Leo brandishing his flaming hammer and he his stygian iron sword, he wondered idly how they were going to get out if this mess.

Then the creatures attacked.

The first two went down almost instantly, one by Leo's fire, the other by Nico's sword.

"How did you not manage to kill them if they're this easy?" He asked incredulously.

"They - _freaking_ \- _learn!"_ Leo gasped back.

Unfortunately, he was quite right. With a brief glance at each other, the two remaining beasts rose into the air and divebombed the fighters. Nico swung again - but the creature altered its flight and instead of crumbling to powder managed to rip the sleeve off of his jumper. A trail of blood dripped from the shallow incision its claws had made.

"We have to separate them!"

Leo grunted. "I _know!"_

They split up, Nico running to the left, and Leo going the other way. Both of the Guardians followed him.

"This isn't following the plan!" He cried.

"I know!"

Leo burst into flame and took a swipe at the smaller of the two. _"Do_ something!"

"Just did," Nico replied, as its golden remains were scattered to the wind. He wiped his sword on the grass.

"What about the other one?"

"Where is it?"

"Going back to the sea. Hey, I think it realizes that it's too weak for us!"

A triumphant screech made Nico's heart plummet abs he whipped around, already moving. The beast was not admitting defeat. It was going for one of the weak links in their group: the semi-concious Percy.

It swooped, talons extended, reaching out to rip out his throat...

Nico dived in between it and the sleeping boy. Pain exploded across his chest as it tore through the skin, and blood gushed onto his ruined shirt.

Raising his sword, determined not to let anyone else die, he was sure that those needle sharp teeth would be the last thing he ever saw...

The last Guardian screamed with pain, and crumbled into dust.

 _I bet that doesn't do these wounds much good,_ he thought vaguely, and blacked out.

XxX

He woke up in the 'car', with three faces peering concernedly down at him. Shaking his head, he let his eyes focus, and the blobs resolved into Percy - conscious and grinning - Badger, and Leo.

"Morning, sleepy head," chuckled Leo.

"Don't call me that," he mumbled, and tried to sit up. "Argh!" He bit back a curse as his wounds thronged painfully.

"I wouldn't get up just yet," Percy advised. "We tried bandaging them, but... it's a good thing were going back to somewhere with Apollo kids."

Snake took that moment to throw herself at him. Her aim was remarkably good, but then he guessed that the others had helped her locate him. "I thought you were gonna die!"

"Can't - breathe!" He choked out, and when she loosened her grip, "Where are we, Flame Head?"

Leo looked out of one window. "We should be arriving in five minutes, give or take..."

"How long have I slept?!"

Badger prized his sister off of him and gave him a quick hug as well. "Maybe... twenty hours? I don't know..."

 _Will's gonna have my head for this,_ he thought, referring not only to his injuries but also to not eating for almost a day. _But I've had worse..._

Then he remembered that Will didn't remember who he was.

Then he remembered that he had the thing that could get Will's memories back in his pocket.

Or did he...?

Frantically patting the pockets in his coat, he satisfied himself that he did indeed have the Ehtel's blood.

 _Almost back now..._

 **A/N Almost over...**

 **Has anyone noticed anything special about the Ehtel?**

 **~Fi**


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N The way I see it, I have this chapter, one after it, abs an epilogue. Maybe two after it, but no more than that.**

 _It's weird_ , Nico reflected detachedly, _to be in the infirmary without Will fussing over me_.

Kayla, splashing something that bubbled and fizzed over his scars and fretting over the fact that they weren't closing up, told him that Will was 'busy' - Nico understood this to mean that Will didn't want to see him. But that was alright (well...) because he had the Ehtel's blood clutched in one hand, ready to give him.

Eventually, Kayla gave up trying to use magical medical methods, and rooted in a draw, emerging with a brilliantly sharp needle and a spool of thread.

"So," Nico said through clenched teeth as she began sewing his skin back together, "where will I find him?"

Kayla finished the first scratch and tugged on the thread to tighten the stitching. He gave an involuntary gasp of pain.

"You okay?"

"Fine," he spat. "Where is he?"

She bit her lip. "He wants to be left alone at the moment..."

Nico dug his fingers into his palm to stop himself reacting as she moved onto the last scar. _"Kayla._ Where. Is. He?"

Her voice was small as she cut the thread with a pair of golden scissors. "The lake."

XxX

Will _was_ at the lake. Nico was just about to run down to greet him, when he saw who he was sitting with, and Kayla's hesitancy to tell him of the blonde's whereabouts suddenly made sense.

Will was sitting on the sand, talking quietly with none other than Drew Tanaka.

Nico almost dropped the vial of blood in surprise. This was one pairing that he had never expected.

He expected what happened next, however, even less.

Drew laughed lightly at something Will - _his_ Will - said, and then put one hand on the back of his neck, pulling his face down to hers and - _kissing him._ Full on the lips.

And Will did not pull away: he tilted his chin slightly to one side and pushed his face back into hers.

Nico's heart was pounding so fast it must surely have broken his stitches by now. Something dropped onto the sand in front of him, and he realised that tears were sliding down his nose. He turned and ran, not stopping until he had entered the cool darkness of the Hades cabin through the open front door, slamming it behind him and sinking to the floor.

 _How could he...?_ Will wouldn't want the memories back now, Nico was sure.

 _He doesn't have a choice! I'll get him to take the blood, even if I have to break down his door and -_

His door had been open. He distinctly remembered closing it last time he'd left, and yet it had been open just now.

That meant someone was in his cabin.

He jerked his head up, swiping quickly at the tears on his cheeks and ignoring the sharp sting from his cuts.

Someone was indeed in his cabin. Two someones, staring at him like rabbits caught in headlights. Two someones, with pink paint buckets and lilac paper chains clutched in their hands.

It looked like the Stolls had been trying to redecorate his cabin for him.

"Um, hi, Nico," one of them started nervously (his eyes were still slightly blurred and he couldn't tell who it was.)

"Yeah, hi," the other one added. "We were just, um..."

Nico sighed and waved his hand at them. They flinched, as though expecting the floor to open beneath them (that probably was what they were expecting, to be honest) then walked back towards the door, revealing a stretch of already hot pink wall.

"No, stop."

"Ah, you see, we-"

"Have an appointment!"

"Yes, a dentist's appointment..."

They started babbling anxiously. _These two could probably steal someone's teeth out of their mouth while they slept_ , Nico thought.

That gave him an idea.

Swallowing (just to make sure that there was no clue that he'd been crying only minutes ago) (only they'd seen that) (he'd still pretend), he opened his mouth and started talking.

"Look, guys, I'm willing to let you off this time..."

"Thanks, Nico!"

"Yeah, you're the man!"

"We'll-"

"... if you do something for me."

Both looked exceedingly worried at that.

"All you have to do..." he explained his plan to them. Or the parts that concerned then, anyway, so barely any of he finished, identical devilish grins appeared on their faces.

"That sounds _awesome!"_ They said together.

"Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you repainted that section of wall to the way it was before you got in."

They nodded in the kind of way a car sales man might nod before conning you out of house and home, and Nico handed them the vial of Ehtel blood. "You know what to do, then."

They left, and Nico slumped down onto the mattress Will slept on. He was breaking his promise to Leo, he knew, but he didn't care.

The only thing that mattered was getting Will back. He would even forgive him for kissing Drew (which would _not_ be easy), but he needed him back.

He needed Will.

 **A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed and followed and favorited. Over 100 reviews, guys, thanks so much!**

 **~Fi**


	38. Chapter 38

**A/N Tadaa! Hope you like today's chapter, guys!**

If there was one thing they Nico desperately hoped he'd never have to do again, it was to wait, on tenterhooks, for his new worst enemy to kiss the boy he loved. Seriously, _never_ again.

It was a few hours after breakfast, and he'd left the Stoll brothers painting his cabin (under the strict observation of Rosetta, one of the zombie maids from his father's palace. _He probably won't notice that I've borrowed her._..), and had been following Tanaka for the better part of an hour already.

So far, she'd touched up her make-up with the help of a small hand mirror encrusted with pink gemstones (even though it was already flawless); sparred in the arena with Piper for twenty minutes; gone into the changing rooms; come out fifteen minutes later in a new shirt (keep calm and wear pink, _honestly,);_ and had now - _finally_ \- met up with Will on the edge of the forest.

 _She didn't kiss him hello_ , Nico noted with a strange sense of disappointment, then gave himself a mental slap. Instead, she took his hand and pulled him into the trees.

Keeping to the shadows, Nico followed behind them.

They walked slowly, clearly in no rush to get to... wherever they were going with the picnic basket Will was holding. At one point, Drew stopped them to watch some birds flying through the trees, at another they removed their shoes and socks and paddled in the stream.

Eventually, they reached a small hill, clear of trees, in the centre of the forest, where they spread out the red chequered rug and started pulling plates from the basket.

 _Just kiss him, already_! Then Nico wished he could invent brain bleach and unthink that.

Sitting in the shadows, watching his nemesis and his boyfriend eating lunch together whilst he wished that he had indeed eaten breakfast was not fun. His stomach growled, and he remembered Will telling him that, "neither of us is ever missing lunch again..."

He sighed, then stiffened, sure they would have heard him - they did not move.

Will packed the remaining food away, and Drew cuddled up to his side.

Half of Nico yearned to reach for her and wrap his fingers around her slender throat; the other part needed them to kiss. He stayed put.

The daughter of Aphrodite laughed, and the tinkling sound travelled right to the clump of trees in which he was hiding.

 _Come on... come on..._

She tilted her face up to the son of Apollo, and he said something in return.

 _Just a few more centimetres..._

She raised a hand and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

 _I'm the only one that should be allowed to do that_ , he thought, and then, _JUST KISS ALREADY!_

Their lips met.

For a few seconds, Nico was sure his plan had failed. Will seemed to sink deeper into the kiss, and Nico half turned away in broken-hearted disappointment.

Then Will's eyes snapped open and widened to their full extant, and he stiffened perceptibly. One of Drew's hands settled around his neck, massaging gently, but he did not relax again.

Instead, he removed his hands from her waist and hair, put them on her shoulders and shoved her away. She looked up at him, hurt splattered across her ovalesque face, and his lips curled first with disgust, then with horror.

Will turned and ran from the hillside, the sunlight gleaming off of his golden hair.

Nico shadow jumped back to his cabin; this was where Will would be headed, he knew.

The Stolls were gone, his cabin restored to normal.

XxX

The door slammed open, light flooding the darkened exterior, and Nico looked up from his perch on a sofa to see the silhouette of his boyfriend.

Will's eyes were red and tears traced their way down his cheeks. "Nico- Nico, I-"

He took a deep breath. A tiny, self-destructive part of Nico's brain wanted yell at Will, to kick him out, to hurt him the way Will had hurt him.

 _But Will hadn't been himself when he did tha_ t, he reminded himself.

Still... "Will," he said, coolly.

The other boy flinched at the coldness of his voice. "Nico, I'm so, so sorry. I swear, I-"

Gulping, he gestured towards the opposite couch. Nico nodded, and he sank into it. "I didn't remember anything since waking up in the Sculpture Garden in New Orleans. I only just remembered now, when I - when I..."

"Kissed Drew." Will looked at his feet, drops of salt water running down the end of his nose and dripping onto the charcoal grey rug.

"Yes," he said, and his voice was a whisper full of self-hatred. "I just... I'm sorry, Nico. I... I understand if you... if you can't forgive me."

He raised his head again, and looked directly into Nico's eyes, bloodshot blue into bottomless black, and Nico felt his emotions bubble to the surface inside of him. It almost hurt, they were so sharp, and he'd been trying to suppress them for so long.

Will clearly mistook the look in his eyes for anger, as he stood and stumbled slowly back towards the door.

 _No!_

"Wait! Will, wait-" Nico flung himself from the crushed velvet cushioned seat towards the other boy, who turned around just in time to catch him and gather him up in his arms.

"I forgive you, _Soleggiato,"_ he whispered into his ear, and burst into silent tears, shoulders shaking slightly.

Will hugged him fiercely and led him gently over to the seat he'd just left. "I'll make it up to you, Death Boy."

"Do you swear it?" Nico's voice was a little muffled.

"On the Styx," Will confirmed, and bent his head down towards the son of Hades'.

When they broke apart, he smiled tentatively at Nico, who leaned back in.

Putting the Ehtel blood into Drew's lipstick stash had been a risky move, a desperate move.

But it had worked.

 **A/N Congratulations to jman197, the only person to twig that Ehtel was Lethe spelt backwards and write it in a review. Well, if the Ehtel does the opposite to the Lethe, I thought, why don't I just reverse its name?One final chapter coming tomorrow, promise. I just have to write an epilogue.**

 **Thanks to all.**

 **~Fi**


	39. Chapter 39

**A/N Here is your promised epilogue. This is, I repeat,** ** _is_** **, the last chapter of this fic. I know I said it before, but I mean it this time.**

 **It's shorter than usual, but I've tried to make it extra fluffy for the finale.**

 **Thanks to everyone who has supported and reviewed me while I wrote this, special thanks to Silver Huntress of Artemis, xxXThalico-loverXxx, and TwiHarmonyDash.**

Will had a cute way of breathing when he slept. Slowly in through the mouth, then out again in a slightly more forceful puff. Lying as he was, on his side facing the blond boy, Nico could just heat the exhaled air whispering out between his lips, like he was telling secrets to the night.

 _Are they good secrets?_ He wanted to ask; he stayed quiet. It wasn't often that he got to watch the blue eyed boy sleep.

They were sleeping in cabin 13 again, the seventh time in the month since the return of Will's memories, and Nico had woken up in the darkest part of the night for no apparent reason.

 _Not_ that he was complaining. He'd gladly spend the morning sleeping through advanced monster studies (since the discovery of the Ethel, Annabeth was trying to teach everyone about every different type of monster she could think of, real-mythical or fictional-fictional) if it meant that he got to watch Will like this.

They'd been sleeping back to back as they usually did when sharing Nico's bed (Will's bed had been used twice, but they preferred to sleep like this), and when he'd rolled over, Will had moved too. Now he was lying on his back as Nico gazed at him.

He whispered in his sleep, and Nico put out a hand, then stayed it. Will would hate to be woken, and in the dark, no less.

Then Will moaned, and Nico sat up to get a proper look at his face. His eyes were twitching beneath their closed lids; his lips fluttering slightly.

He cried out to the night. "No, stop! Stop, please! Don't- you're hurting him!"

Nico tried frantically to get in to his dream, to redirect it, to protect him; but he couldn't manage it. He wished he'd payed more attention to Clovis in that dream walking class...

Will shouted again, _"Please!_ Don't hurt him!", and Nico decided. He couldn't let Will stay in this nightmare, no matter how much he hated waking up to the dark.

"Wake up! Wake up, Will!"

"No... _no!"_

He shook the sleeping boy's shoulder vigorously, and he jerked awake, bursting into noisy tears.

Nico wrapped his arms around him, pulling his head into the crook of his neck.

"It's alright," he crooned gently. "You're alright. It's going to be okay..."

Eventually, Will calmed down enough for Nico to let him go. "Do you want to talk?"

Gulping, the son of Apollo nodded, then scooted up to the headboard so that he was in a sitting position.

"Somebody... Somebody was hurting you..." he cleared his throat noisily. "And I couldn't- I couldn't do a thing. And you were screaming... bad there was so much... so much blood..."

He ducked his head back towards Nico's, who hugged him even tighter than before.

"It's okay, I'm okay, we're both okay. I won't let anything happen to either of us, Soleggiato, I promise."

"But... what if... what if I loose my memories again? What if someone tries to take you away? What if..." Nico had to strain to hear his next words, they were said so quietly. "What if you forget about me?"

He dropped a light kiss onto his sunshine's forehead, and smiled into his mop of blond curls. "That's not going to happen, Soleggiato. You wanna know why?"

Nico knew that Will knew what was coming next, but he nodded anyway. "You've said it before..."

"And I'll say it again, Soleggiato. We're simply meant to be."

Will sighed and snuggled back down into the queen sized bed, pulling the blood red covers up to his ears.

 _Gods,_ Nico loved Will. He dropped another kiss onto his cheekbone, just by the corner of his eye, and the blond smiled sleepily.

"Stay with me?"

"Always."

Will knotted his fingers through Nico's, and closed his eyes.

All was well.

 _ **The End**_

 **A/N So sue me, I quoted both The Nightmare Before Christmas** ** _and_** **The Deathly Hallows. I own neither. And I'm not Rick Riordan. :(**

 **I hope you enjoyed it. Your thoughts and opinions are still appreciated, because I might need pointers on what could be improved about this for my next fic...**

 **Thanks again!**

 **~Fi**


End file.
